Unlocking an O2 Iphone I was asked if I could unlock an iPhone today, the answer was, of course, a resounding no. Intrigued, I dug a little deeper to see what would be required and if it were possible.

All of the information I found either led to using the o2(UK) form or using a third party site. He tells me that after a long arduous conversation with 02 that the firm option is not viable for him. So I'm wondering, what is it that these various sites offer to do that is different from this 'form'. All they ask for is the IMEI number, cash and in return a promise that it'll be unlocked in x number of days.

As far as I'm aware Apple has a particular contract with the network meaning that some sort of communication needs to pass back and forth between them to enable this unlocking to take place else it may well be temporary.

So, with that in mind, are these sites suggesting that they get in touch with both Apple & the network, is it their contacts within the relevant depts that we're effectively paying for.

Is there another solution?
I wouldn't mind attempting to unlock an old phone I have just for the 'tadaaa' factor, we do love it when we get things to work that perhaps we shouldn't have. :D

Thanks in advance for any advice, answers, suggestions or tips.

also, if there's a programmatic way of solving this...I'm all ears, I'll happily tear my phone apart and rig it up to a circuit if it means solving the mystery.

I have tried one of those sites in 2010 to unlock my iPhone 4 (SFR), it worked perfectly and I'm still using it. I think that these types of websites have people with access to Apple databases and can easily unlock it from there. I can't think of another way to unlock your phone without going through the original carrier, Apple or these websites. You can still change the mother board but that's like changing the phone.

There are jailbreak methods you may want to check iClarified they'll tell how and if you can do it.


How many clients does the airport express support when bridging (ProxySTA)? The airport express is said to support 50 users, yet in my case (when bridging WiFi to ethernet) it only serves up to 4 clients on the LAN port. A fifth client is not able to obtain an IP address nor ARP requests or anything else. It's completely ignored by the airport express.

So: How many ethernet clients does the airport express support concurrently when bridging?

Note: This applies to bridged mode (ProxySTA) only, where one bridges an existing WiFi (connected to the internet) into an ethernet.

I get the same results. Only 4 clients receive an IP from the the main AP. Seems to be an undocumented hard limit on the Express when in client / proxysta mode


Can I reactivate my Peggle Nights in-app purchase on my new iPad without being charged again? I own Peggle for iPhone and bought the Peggle Nights addon from within the app. I installed Peggle on my new iPad, but Peggle Nights isn't available.

I've seen other iOS games (like 100 Rogues) that have a "check for purchases" feature alongside "purchase", but Peggle doesn't have this. If I click "purchase", will I be charged another $4, or will the app just reactivate my purchase?

(After a few back-and-forth emails with PopCap support trying to get them to understand my question, they punted and suggested I ask Apple.)

iTunes Store: About In-App Purchases

  If you lose your In-App Purchases
  because apps were accidentally
  deleted, or if you had to restore your
  device without a backup, you may be
  able to download some of your in app
  purchases again for free. Not all
  In-App Purchases are eligible for free
  download again.

  Replenishable In-App Purchases and    subscriptions cannot be downloaded again for free, and must be  repurchased. Examples include but are not limited to: extra ammo additional health, extra experience points, or other one-time services.
  Non-replenishable In-App Purchases    and auto-renewing subscriptions can be downloaded again for free. Examples include: bonus game levels a map/city guide, a daily news subscription, or other recurring  services.
  To download an In-App    Purchase again, you must download it from within the installed app using the same iTunes Store account name for the original In-App Purchase.

It's an addon that is not limited, ergo a non-replenishable In-App purchase. So I would say it has to work.


MacBook not asking for password after sleep My mid-2015 MacBook Pro (Sierra 10.12.2) skips the login screen when waking from sleep, it goes straight to my desktop.

I have my System Preferences set to require my password 1 minute after being put to sleep but it doesn't seem to be working.

Anyone have an idea of what the problem might be?

Not sure if you set it in the correct place, but the setting should be at:

  Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Security & Privacy, then click General.
  Select “Require password… after sleep or screen saver begins.”
  Click the pop-up menu and choose the time that passes before a password is required.

Source: OS X Yosemite: Require a password after waking your Mac


Connecting a MacBook Air with Thunderbolt 2 to a Monitor with HDMI and USB-C I have a 13-inch MacBook Air Early 2015, resolution 1440 × 900 with thunderbolt 2 and USB-A. I want to connect it to a bigger display. Right now I am considering to buy an LG 27UK850-W 4K 27 inch Monitor (resolution 3840x2160) which has HDMI, USB-C, DisplayPort and USB Downstream Port.
Can I connect my MacBook and the monitor with the following connections:

MacBook Air -> Thunderbolt 2 Cable -> Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 adapter -> LG 27UK850-W 4K Monitor

MacBook Air -> USB-A to HDMI adapter -> HDMI -> LG 27UK850-W 4K Monitor

Would there be any limitations with the display quality? Which one is the best way to connect the devices or do you have any other suggestions?

I wouldn't recommend any of those. Instead get an ordinary mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable and connect the monitor with a plain cable instead of adapters.
The 2015 MacBook Air cannot be charged over the USB-C port in any case, so you cannot benefit from that feature of the monitor right now. However in the future you might have a newer computer, and then the USB-C port with Power Delivery might come in handy.


AirPods connect to correct device I own AirPods and connect to by my iMac (for video conference) and iPhone (for phone calls).

How do I get the AirPods to switch to the device that I want to use?

I can't turn bluetooth off on the iMac because then the mouse stops working. If I select AirPods on the iPhone when I am on a call nothing happens. But if I restart the computer then I can use it on the iPhone while the computer is not on bluetooth.

Under the Listen with your AirPods section of this Apple support document:

Follow these steps to use your AirPods to play audio from a different
device or to switch the audio to different headphones or speakers.
On your iOS device
Open Control Center. Press deeply or touch and hold
the audio card in the upper-right corner of Control Center to control
audio. Tap the airplay icon, then choose the device you want from the list.*
On your Mac
Click the sound icon in the menu bar and choose your AirPods* or other speakers
under Output Device.
*AirPods appear only when they're nearby and ready to use.


MacBook Pro HDD in Gparted - Main partition "unknown" I've been given a defective MacBook Pro, seems to be a model from around 2011 - still has a DVD-Drive and a normal HDD.

The MacBook had water spilled over it; so I disassemed it and took the HDD out to connect it (via SATA) to a normal PC. I booted into PartedMagic (with the ultimate Boot CD) and tried to see what's on the HDD.
I can see three partitions:
1: 200MiB fat32; labeled "EFI"
2: 465GiB "unknown", labeled "Customer"
3: 620MiB hfs+ Recocery_HD

As far as my understanding goes, the user partition should be hfs+ also; when I try to manually mount it (mount -t hfs plus /dev/......) I get an error that it's not possible (wrong filesystem etc).

Has this to do with some kind of encryption?
Is there a way to get the data from the (obviously working) HDD without using another Mac?

Thank you very much in advance.

Regards,
Lars

It all depends on how the system you are running GPARTED from is configured.

It has been quite a while since I have used the Ultimate Boot CD but if I remember correctly it did not have built-in support for HFS+ filesystems. In other words GPARTED will work with HFS+ partitions (create, modify, delete, etc.) but I am unsure that it supports mounting an HFS+ filesystem.

The Ultimate Boot CD Wiki has no listings when searching for "HFS." Literally nothing comes up. So either their search function is completely messed up or that CD does not offer HFS+ file system support.

And if trying to mount that file system fails with an error it seems likely that there is no HFS+ support on that CD.

Depending on how Linux knowledgeable you are there are HFS+ filesystem implementations available for Linux that you may be able to install on the Ultimate Boot CD but tht would be outside my area of expertise and outside the remit of AskDifferent. Perhaps over on https://superuser.com/


iPhone picture privacy app I am looking for a picture privacy app supporting the following features:

Unlimited number of "vaults" (note: only one vault is bad, one real vault plus one fake vault is bad as well, only an unlimited number really allows to hide vaults and to use the app with several groups of people)
Folder support per vault
Full screen mode
Picture zoom
Picture slideshow and manual forward/backward with low decoding delay
Mass upload
Great, well designed, visually appealing user interface

Do you have any idea or recommendation?

Thanks!

If you're looking for privacy, I've heard about an app called Ben the Bodyguard that's going to be released soon. Judging from their intro page, it will probably meet your "well designed UI" requirement.

Apart from 3rd party apps like that one, iOS is not really designed for multiple users. Use a lockscreen PIN and don't share the phone if you want privacy in the meantime.


Applescript to get Dropbox file direct/share link Is it possible to retrieve the direct/share link of a file that is in my Dropbox folder, but not in its Public subfolder?

I'd like to use that for an Alfred workflow. I saw many tutorials on how to do that for files that are in the Public folder but I'd like to use the new way Dropbox handles files sharing.

Thanks!

To generate a shared link from a private folder you must make a request to Dropbox's servers using authentication with the Dropbox API. See the docs here.
I am not sure you can do that from an applescript, maybe you can use curl. But if you want this in an Alfred workflow you can always use another scripting language like php or python, which are more suitable.


List apps with access to your Apple ID Since you can now login to certain OSX/iOS apps using your Apple ID credentials rather than with an application-specific account, is there a way to list all of the apps you have granted access to and edit their permissions (something like what Google does when you authenticate using your Google credentials)?

In iOS, Go to Settings > Your name > iCloud > List of apps.

You can turn on / off any of the apps using your Apple ID


Start program in response to system events (like ip address changes, etc.)? I want to start a program in response to system events, such as:

IP address changes
WIFI connectivity changes (whether I'm connected, and/or which network I'm connected to)
Volume (as in disk) changes
User logs on or off
System shuts down or restarts

Is there anything built in to do this, or is there a 3rd party tool that can do this for me?

ControlPlane has many of the functions you're looking for, though I don't think it has any rules for connected users.  I've been using it for a few months on my work MBP to switch between home and office and it's been quite good.


Upgrading one partition to El Capitan while leaving the other on Mountain Lion We have an iMac that is barely still compatible with El Capitan. Right now it runs Mountain Lion okay, and actually it has a smaller partition on the hard drive for another clean installation of Mountain Lion that we don't really use.

I have an El Capitan boot USB drive and an El Capitan install app, and I was thinking about using one of those to upgrade the clean install partition to El Capitan to see how it performs, but I'm hesitant and want to make sure things wouldn't be messed up.

So first of all, does this sound like a good idea? Second, would it be better to boot into the USB drive and choose to install to the clean install partition or should I put the install app on the clean install's Application's folder and run it from there?

Also would doing this risk causing the Mountain Lion restore partition to be deleted? Are there risks of things being messed up, not being able to make Mountain Lion the default boot partition, or other weird things El Capitan would do to the main partition?

Yes, you can go ahead and  install El Capitan to the smaller partition.

You just need to run the "Install OS X El Capitan" application and select the proper destination volume. I would first use the Disk Utility application to erase this destination volume. You do not have to use a USB drive to install El Capitan.

During the installation, the Recovery volume following destination volume will be update with the proper code. The Recover volume for Mountain Lion will be unchanged. The result will be two different Recover volumes on your internal disk. Each will be given a different label so you can tell them apart.

During the installation, I was not asked, if I wanted to use Core Storage. In the event, you are asked, the answer should be No.

  I verified this procedure by running the "Install OS X El Capitan" application from an internal Yosemite volume. I installed El Capitan to an external drive. The Yosemite volume was unchanged by the procedure.

I also have had Yosemite and El Capitan installed in different volumes on my internal drive for some time now. You can switch operating systems by selecting the Startup Disk in System Preferences.


Is it possible to get GNU sed for OSX? I have brew installed but I don't have the GNU flavor of sed - can I get it through brew?

I know you said fsed however I could not find it anywhere so assuming it's a typo and you actually meant sed you can install it with:

brew install gnu-sed

Or

brew install gnu-sed --with-default-names


Xcode 6.1 won't let me create a new project I'm running Xcode 6.1 on OS X Yosemite and I'm unable to create a new project, as you can see below it just says 'loading'.

I've removed the product and org name for the purpose of this image. I have tried uninstalling but that didn't work. I am new to Xcode and coding in general so I would appreciate it if any solution could be given in lay terms.

Make sure you have something entered in Organization Name and Organization Identifier. Right now it can be any placeholder. I think it matters later on when you're submitting projects to the App Store.


how do I launch firefox after installing it? I downloaded the .dmg for Firefox, clicked on it, was prompted to drag it to the Applications folder, did so, but cannot launch it.

The directions are to drag the icon from Applications to the dock...but I only see the .dmg file in Applications.  How do I know that it installed correctly?

It's in the folder:

Darrens-MacBook-Pro:~ thufir$
Darrens-MacBook-Pro:~ thufir$ ls /Applications/Firefox\ 36.0.1.dmg
/Applications/Firefox 36.0.1.dmg
Darrens-MacBook-Pro:~ thufir$

and before I dragged it with the mouse, the OS confirmed the .dmg file.

Type of Mac:

  Model Name:   MacBook Pro
  Model Identifier: MacBookPro9,1
  Processor Name:   Intel Core i7
  Processor Speed:  2.3 GHz
  Number of Processors: 1
  Total Number of Cores:    4
  L2 Cache (per Core):  256 KB
  L3 Cache: 6 MB
  Memory:   4 GB
  Boot ROM Version: MBP91.00D3.B08
  SMC Version (system): 2.1f175
  Serial Number (system):   C02HH5JQDV33
  Hardware UUID:    FBB1FF0A-6EAC-5423-9E8F-405B181EF5F3
  Sudden Motion Sensor:
  State:    Enabled

Here's where I'm at:

You can drag your new Firefox Application directly to the Applications folder.
The folder shown on that blue window is for convenience, a 'shortcut' to your own apps folder.

Either way, you need to drag the actual Firefox app [Application, though the .app is hidden by the system, like on Windows], not its container the .dmg file.

A .dmg is a convenient & secure method of getting an app to you from the developer. It is a self-checking structure, so it knows if it was downloaded correctly & won't open if it's broken. It's a bit like a zip file except that you can 'see' straight into it without unpacking to a new folder…. but like a zip file you need to get the contents out of it before you can use them.

Think of a .dmg as having 3 'stages'…

stage 1 - the original .dmg file - when you double click that
stage 2 - it mounts a virtual disk on your desktop, which will open to show something along the lines of your blue window.
[They're not always as nicely set out as that one & they don't always open automatically, sometimes you have to double-click the virtual disk to open it]
stage 3 - You then take the contents [your shiny new app] & either drag directly to your Applications folder or a convenient shortcut in the same window.
Sometimes you need to double-click that 'application' to launch a separate installer.
You will [almost] always be told which to do.

Once the Application has copied itself to the Applications folder, you then can 'put away' the virtual disk.
You can do this by dragging it to the trash. Disks are not erased by dragging to trash on Mac OS, they are ejected.
Alternatively, you can right click & Eject, or select & hit  Cmd ⌘   E

If you want your new app to have a place in the Dock, you can now drag the version in your Applications folder to the Dock & it will add to it.

Once you're happy it all worked, you can delete the .dmg file

 Sorry if this explanation is over-simplistic - I just thought it deserved a canonical answer


Disable Bluetooth "roaming" on Macbook Pro So, my Macbook Pro (15-inch, 2018) are often bluetooth "roaming" and connecting to devices (like my headphones) despite being on battery power with closed lid. I would very much like to disable this feature – seems like a bit of a security/privacy concern as well.

Any ideas on how to disable bluetooth when lid is closed?

Actually, your MBP do not disconnect bluetooth when closing the lid. So if you turn on devices known (like your headphones) they will connect together. I also found this annoying when I wanted to connect my headphones to my phone but they always connected to my MBP...

You could install blueutil and SleepWatcher via homebrew and set a .sleep code to do "/usr/local/bin/blueutil -p 0" when going to sleep mode.

To use SleepWatcher, make a shell script in your home directory named .sleep and give it permission with the chmod command.

You also can do a .wake code to turn bluetooth back on with blueutil -p 1

You can find out how to use sleepwatcher here


Changing keyboard command for retrieving mouse cursor coordinates From what I've understood, ⇧ + ⌘ + 4 is the way one currently gets Mouse Cursor Coordinates in macOS.

I use this combination for something else. Is there a way to change the keyboard command for retrieving the Mouse Cursor Coordinates? I tried looking in Settings > Keyboard > Shortcuts, but didn't find anything.

Perhaps then, the keyboard command could be edited with something like Karabiner?

If the keyboard shortcut is not editable, is there a good and simple stand-alone tool for retrieving coordinates?

That key combination is for producing a picture from a section of the screen selected by the mouse and so that key combination is already fixed. It just conveniently shows the co-ordinates when selecting.

Unless it is possible to edit in the kernel or somewhere...


Does Apple make backups of iCloud? Photos have been deleted from an iPhone which had iCloud Photo Library turned on so photos were deleted from iCloud as well. Does Apple store backups of iCloud to restore its state at a previous date ?

Does Apple make backups of iCloud?

From an infrastructure management perspective, yes they do. However, it’s not something consumers can access alone and it’s not something Apple support staff and engineers can access alone. Their backups are for service continuity; if something on their servers crash, they can be to and running again. They also have some automation in case people inadvertently make a choice to delete files not realizing that deletion is permanent. Due to how the encryption keys are stored, you would need to create a support pin and then explicitly give Apple consent and a key to unlock your files. Think of a bank offering to store your lock box in their vault. They can look at your box, but may not have the key to open it.
Can you access this back up?  No. It’s not for users. In fact, every Apple account is encrypted meaning Apple can’t make sense of the files without your help.
From the customer perspective (yours) iCloud is a synchronization service. If you delete photos, it’s assumed you wanted them gone. Now, you can use iCloud for your own backups, but that’s something you have to setup and manage (For example, my iPhone is backed up to iCloud including photos on it).
IMO, iCloud is good, but not as mature as OneDrive or Azure. In those services, not only do I get the synchronization services like iCloud, but I can purchase a backup plan and even specify where I want it (I could be in the east coast of the US and my data gets backed up to the west coast or even Europe!)
Personally, when it comes to Photos, I have them in the cloud, on my NAS and then backed up from the NAS to a USB drive, so 3 places. Having your own backup is the ideal case as you would not depend on support for recovering files you could have backed up.


Replace text with predefined value in browser I used to have a tool on my PC that would allow me to prefill text when I enter certain "codes". For example, I would type $test123 and it would replace that text with a sentence that I had setup.

Is there a similar program on the Mac that also works in any browser?

I believe you are looking for TextExpander.

From their site:

  Type more with less effort! TextExpander saves your fingers and your keyboard, expanding custom keyboard shortcuts into frequently-used text and pictures...


Change default alert sound from terminal in Mac OSX The version of Mac OS X being used is 10.8.5.

When I click the back button on an empty terminal windows if give a alert sound which is the 'Funk' sound in the System Preferences -> Sound -> Sound Effects

I tried going to the Terminal Preferences -> Settings -> Advanced where there is a checkbox for turning the Audible/Visual Bell but not change the audible bell.

Can this sound be changed to anything else in the Sound Effects list like Submarine, Tink etc.

It looks like for macOS Sierra you simply need to change the Alert Sound under the Sound System Preferences (System Preferences > Sound > Sound Effects).


How does the Summarize Service in OS X work? I’m quit impressed with the Summarize Service in OS X. But its unclear to me, how the service does the summarising. Could someone please explain this to me?

I have done some testing with the summarize service.

As far I can tell the summarize service looks for key words (repeat)

Then it simply removes the duplicates or triplicates pending on your setting in the summarize service.

It looks like the summarize also removes all that do not have the key words in it.

This sentence has summarize service in it.

This sentence does not.

  Result after:

  I have done some testing with the summarize service.

  As far I can tell the summarize service looks for key words (repeat)

  Then it simply removes the duplicates or triplicates pending on your
  setting in the summarize service.

  It looks like the summarize also removes all that do not have the key
  words in it.

  This sentence has summarize service in it.

Of course it is bit more complex than my test as a 12 Years old answer explains it: Summarize uses a combination of text pattern matching, grammar parsing and heuristics to eliminate redundant and extraneous text.


What are some effective ways to save power when using my MacBook Pro? I have an Early 2011 MacBook Pro (Core i7, 8GB RAM) with Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8.2).

What are some effective ways to save power? I am looking to maximise use of the battery - from a full charge - on long plane/train trips. Here are the ways I'm aware of:

Turning off WiFi.
Turning off Bluetooth.
Reducing the screen brightness.

Is there anything else significant I'm missing? Can I easily check what processes/programs might be sucking power in order to kill them?

Also, if I need/want to use the WiFi (for example, I'm on a flight with WiFi service), is there a way to minimise its power consumption?

Note: I'm happy to broaden the question to other models of MacBook/versions of OS X if necessary, since I'm sure the answers will be similar.

If your Mac has dual GPU (integrated for tasks not requiring much graphical performance, and dedicated for high performance tasks) then I recommend using an app called gfxCardStatus. It allows you to lock specific GPU to be in use all the time instead of dynamically switching it. It provides HUGE battery life boost, mainly because OSX's GPU switching algorithm is very far from perfect, triggering dedicated GPU on even very basic apps eg Coda 2.

Just to give you an idea (based on my own MBP 15 2011):

Dynamic switching: ~3h on battery
Locked to integrated GPU: 7h on battery

I have found that very often in order to actually lock your GPU you need to select it twice in the app.


what is the "get" button on the apple tv 4? According to Using Netflix on your Apple TV, "in the App Store, search for Netflix to find our app, then choose Get to start installation."

Where is the "Get" button? There is no option on the App Store screen:

It's not on the remote either: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205305

Any ideas?

What you're seeing is the listing of the Netflix app in the App Store.

Click on the Netflix app (press the touch surface till it clicks) you have highlighted in your screen shot. This will take you to the app page for the Netflix app and there will be a get button on that page. Click on "Get".


Vertical Sync on MBP On PCs you could easily configure the Vertical Sync setting from NVidia control panel, how can you enable/disable vertical sync in OS X?

In OSX, Veritical Sync is called Beam Sync

Running the command sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver Compositor -dict deferredUpdates 0 should do it for you, but you may need to reboot. Replace the 0 with 1 to re-enable.

You should also be able to do this by downloading this prefpane and looking under "System". Another way is to use Quartz Debug to disable it, but it seems like that has become harder to run on Lion & ML.


Why are my contacts not working? So on my iPod generation 4, I go into my cloud contacts and type my friends name like" amy(: Bestfriend" and then I'll save that and go to my messages and her name will pop up as "Amy then her last name".  I don't get why the name I saved it as isn't showing up.. It did before! Please help?

Did you recently hookup your Facebook account to your iPod? Typically when you do that it imports the contacts Facebook name for use on your phone/iPod. If you go to Settings->Facebook you can turn off contacts.

Also you may want to try and delete that conversation, then start it over with the new contact (go right from contacts to send message).

Hope that helps!


Airplay stopped working All of a sudden none of my ios devices are able to connect to the Apple TV via Airplay. The Airplay icon shows up in the Control center on my Iphone 5s and my ipad 3. If I choose to airplay, the music doesnt stream to my Apple TV. It tries to stream, but after about 5 secs, it disconnects from Airplay.
I cannot mirror my ios devices either. Interestingly, I can mirror my Macbook Pro displat to the Apple TV. But that is the extent of it.
I have the latest updates on my Apple TV, my iPhone 5S, ipad 3 and my Macbook Pro.
I have even tried factory resetting my Apple TV and all my ios devices. But none of that has helped.
Anyone experiencing this? Please help.

Ok. I think I have found a solution. If you have a dual-frequency router like I do, all you need to do is go into your router settings and set different SSIDs for your 2.4GHz and 5Ghz networks. Doing that has fixed my airplay issue instantly. Enjoy!!


How do I disable requirement to enter password after I close and reopen the lid? I don't like having to re-enter my password if I've just closed the lid for only 5 - 10 minutes.  How can I disable this?  I've already tried going to System Preferences --> Security & Privacy, and setting it to require a password only 1 hour after sleep or screensaver.

Mid-2014 Macbook Pro running Mavericks v10.9.4

As I recall, "lid closed" is an entirely different event than "sleep or screen saver" and you cannot disable asking for a password when the laptop is opened. There is a brief timeout where you can reopen the lid, in some cases, but it's only a few seconds.


Safari can't connect to https Safari suddenly can't connect to any HTTPS site because it "can't establish a secure connection".

This is on an administrator account, not a managed account.

A different administrator account is able to use Safari with HTTPS, so must be something specific to my account, but I have no idea what.

Google Chrome has no problems connecting to HTTPS sites.

Things I have tried:

emptied Safari's cache
deleted Safari's preferences
reset Safari entirely
repaired Keychain (no errors found)
deleted Keychain (didn't help)
repaired permissions in Disk Utility
rebooted
hoped it would suddenly fix itself

All of the google results I saw suggested either repairing the Keychain (which I tried and which did not help) or were only applicable if there were "Parental Controls" involved, which doesn't apply here.

If I had to guess, I would think that wherever Safari is checking for "certificates" is somehow corrupted, but I could be wrong. I'm not even sure where to look for those - maybe ~/Library/?

A report on forums.macrumors.com seems to be fairly similar to yours. This happens as well in Safari 5.1 and is very recent.

The solution was to delete:

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.plist


Does OS X scale the resolution of my screen? I'm using an Early 2015 13" MacBook Pro with Retina Display and it has a native screen resolution of 2560 by1600 pixels, the default setting says "looks like 1280x800", and it seems like every program thinks this is my resolution I've set it to the "More space" option, which says "looks like 1650x1050", for now.

This is still a problem for me, everything looks far too big for what I need. Is there any way to make the 2560x1600 display to look like "real 2560x1600"? Or is this just a thing OS X does?

PS: I've tried this in OS X El Capitan and macOS Sierra.

You can use an app like Display Menu, available for free in the App Store, to set the Display to its highest resolution, as well as other available resolutions.

Note that there is a paid Pro version too, for $1.99 USD, which offers AppleScript Support, Retina Resolutions which displays all resolutions with a mouse click and Bookmarks for Quick Access.

I've used the regular version for over 3 years now on my 15" Mid 2013 MacBook Pro with Retina Display and it's done all I've needed without upgrading to the Pro version. That said, you might find the additional Pro features worth the $1.99 USD.


organize pictures into destination folders automatically based on date I have a ~50000 pictures:

located in multiple folders
not organized,
there are duplicates
source contains videos, but I need only pictures

I would like to organize all of them into subfolders automatically as:

targetdirectory/YEAR/MONTH/DAY/*.jpg

either original filename or renamed something like YYYYMMDDHHMMSS.ext would be ok..

Should merge from multiple sources and should skip duplicates...

I tried iphoto and aperture but it wasn't working 100%

Thank you !

You can use Hazel (http://www.noodlesoft.com/hazel.php) to organise and file your photos.

In Hazel you can create rules to act on files, these rules can be based on for example file metadata or EXIF information.
The rule actions can create new folders and subfolders from these attributes and copy the files into the right location (it can also handle file name conflicts).

I found an example to set this one up on dpreview. (In step 4.c you specify that it should only work with pictures, it will ignore the videos).

The only thing you might need to do is to copy the files from the current folders into the folder where the Hazel rule will trigger.


Apple Watch pinged a phone that is not mine. Why, how do I replicate, and how do I avoid? This morning I used my Apple Watch to locate my iPhone.  Swipe up, tap the phone icon, and somewhere in the caverns of my couch a phone chimes.  After flipping cushions and digging through crevices, I disassembled the entire couch with a sawzall and found my wife's phone.  (Which made me question whether my hearing was off, so I pressed the button again, and it chimed again.) Her phone repeatedly responding to my watch.  I picked up her phone and started rummaging around again for mine.  Decided to try pinging it again, and my phone finally did beep, in the kitchen.

Why was my watch, paired only to my phone, able to make another phone beep?
While it was inconvenient at the moment and a little worrisome, being able to locate multiple phones in a household with the watch would be could be convenient if I knew how to control it.  How can I specify from the watch, which phone to locate?

The watch only pings one phone in my experience (but many watches can pair and ping to one phone)- the phone it paired to from the Watch app. I would first start by looking at each phone in question - check which watches are paired to which phone.

To confirm, I assume are using this tap to summon the phone.

On the fixing, I always like to unpair the watch on the phone I have as primary. Then back that phone up to iCloud and to disk using Finder / Music / iTunes. That way my health and activity data are all in one backup. Then I re-pair the watch with the phone I prefer.


El Capitan: How do I use my Apple ID password to log in after a temporary password change? Today, I reset my User password to a temporary password for use in a service appointment. Previously, the account was using my iCloud password to log in, and I thought I could change it back to that after the service.

When the service was completed, I used the Users & Groups preference pane to reset my password again, but the option to use my iCloud password to log in is no longer present.

Based on this thread, I logged out of iCloud and logged back in from the iCloud preference pane, but the option to use my use my iCloud password is still not presented when I initiate a password reset in the Users & Groups preference pane.

Is there a known solution to this issue? If not what steps might I take to diagnose the problem?

MacBookPro11,1
OS X 10.11.4 (15E65)

Run the following command in Terminal, then restart your Mac. The iCloud password will appear again.

sudo dscl . append /Users/`users` AuthenticationAuthority ";AppleID;ID@APPLE.COM"

And do NOT forget to change ID@APPLE.COM yo your real Apple ID.


Prevent macOS from bringing all windows to front when switching to an app? I have 2 windows of Google Chrome open, one on each display. Switching to Google Chrome puts both the windows on top of the rest of the apps on both the displays.

This is annoying as I write using one display, and use the other to view reference material. Switching apps often causes the windows on other display to get inadvertently covered.

I have set displays to have separate Spaces.

Is there any way to prevent macOS from bringing all the app windows to front, or, to prevent the app windows shown on the other display from  switching too?

Is there any way to prevent macOS from bringing all the app windows to front, or, to prevent the app windows shown on the other display from  switching too?

No. This isn't the way app switching works. Irrespective of the number of connected displays, only app is the frontmost app at a time (is in focus and the Menu Bar shows the app's menu).

However, the approach mentioned below addresses exactly the issue that you face (I face it too) and in my experience is an easy approach to take too :)

I am assuming you use the Command + Tab keyboard shortcut to switch to Google Chrome app (and to switch to an app in general).

When using the Command + Tab keyboard shortcut to switch to an app, all the open windows are brought to front. This is the default macOS behaviour.

This may be sometimes annoying (as in your particular case), when you have a barrage of windows of an app open and you have meticulously set them up so that some of them are hidden behind window(s) of other apps.

To circumvent this behaviour, the easiest approach to follow is to use Mission Control instead of Command + Tab to pick up preciously the desired window.

First, invoke Mission Control. Now hover your mouse cursor over the Chrome window that you wish to bring to front. The window border is highlighted to indicate that it is under mouse focus.

Now if you are unsure if the window is the desired one (as it is hidden behind other chrome windows or if it too small to be legible), simply press Space key to sort of Quick Look it by enlarging it.

Once you are sure that you have correct window, simply click on it to bring only that window to front.

Note: I have enabled a setting called Group windows by application under System Preferences → Mission Control which makes the Mission Control display less cluttered by grouping app windows together.

This may restrict easily visualizing all open windows of an app if a lot them are open. It could be disabled, so as to view all open windows across all the app separately under Mission Control at the cost of having a cluttered view.

Another useful side-effect of this configuration is that hovering over a window shows the relevant title in the centre of the window, which further helps in easily identifying its contents.


How bad is it for a Mac to forcefully restart it when it freezes? I have a 2011 27" iMac running OS X Lion. There is a known bug when iMac, after waking up from sleep mode, freezes while playing video (Flash in my case). It does not respond to any key combination and mouse clicks. I can still move mouse pointer and hear iTunes playing. It does not happen if iMac has been rebooted and was not put into sleep mode after that. So when it freezes, I have to turn it off and on again with the power button. The question is, does it affect hard drive, power supply or anything else that I need to worry about?

Holding the power button and letting the System Management Controller SMC perform an immediate halt is no worse than letting the software initiate the halt.

I suppose you could come up with a scenario with the mac in free fall or something relating to the head not being parked, but modern hardware is designed to handle power losses from the wall outlet with great grace and here the SMC is still controlling a soft landing.

The power implications are the same even though the applications and operating system don't get their normal opportunity to save work, close files and get ready for the next time they start.

Your files and data could be at risk from this (think erase and install OS and restore backup files as worst software case), but the hardware doesn't care of the open files or some pending changes are not flushed from caches before the lights go out.


How do I collect all of my notes and highlights from iBooks? I've got a lot of highlighting and notes in iBooks that I've read, and would like to be able to collect them in one easy to use and manipulate format (e.g for writing papers and citing quotes).

For example, I'd like a highlight like this

to produce something (e.g., in CSV) like

  Quod me nutrit me destruit – that which sustains me also destroys me,14,Tamburlane Parts One and Two,Christopher Marlowe,Anthony B. Dawson ed.,Bloomsbury,https://itun.es/us/qSrZ0.l

I can see how to do this (sort of) laboriously, one note at a time, using iBook's "sharing" feature (or copy and paste, of course) but I don't see any way to do it in bulk, for all of my notes from a book, or even all my books.

Is there a way to accomplish this, with an Apple Script or using Automator for example? Or perhaps there is a text or XML file containing my notes and highlighting that I could write a script (in Python, preferably) to parse.

iBooks doesn't have AppleScript support.  The annotations are stored in a SQLite file: ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.iBooksX/Data/Documents/AEAnnotation/.

You could try to parse that. This answer gives a link to Digested, which reads that database and then allows you to export your annotations to Evernote, but I don't know what formatting they'll have or if you want to mess with Evernote.

One (possibly) simple solution would be to open the book in iBooks for iOS. You could then email the annotations in bulk to yourself.

Open the book
Press the "list button" to bring up the Table of Contents
Switch to the Notes tab
Press the Share button
Select Edit Notes
Select All
Share via email.

Edit:

Actually, after reading a comment on reddit, there seems to be a way to export them all from iBooks on OS X as well:

  You can export your notes in an email from Notes -> Select All -> Share (you need to hold ctrl while you right click to retain your selection). Your highlighted portions will be copied into the email with your notes and formatted nicely.
  Strangely, on the Mac the application doesn't care about whether the book is copy protected—it will always copy the highlighted portion. The iOS application indeed discriminates though. If your book is copy protected, then only the chapter name will be shared.
  That seems to be the only way to do it unfortunately. :/

Using my laptop's trackpad, I had to hold down ctrl + shift while tapping on the trackpad in order to bring up the contextual menu while retaining the selection.


Mac mini Apple bluetooth keyboard DELETE key can't do 'backward delete' I have mac mini and I bought an original apple bluetooth keyboard from ebay. The problem is that the DELETE key always do 'DELETE' action and not 'Backspace', even if I use the function key with it. The same problem is occurred on both windows and osx 10.8 in my mac mini. Please help me guys. Thanks!

Yes, it does for me: "fn" "delete" does a backward delete.


Apple Watch app for hiking What's your favorite Apple Watch app for Hiking.
I'm looking for something that provide this features:

Integration with Health and Activities (i.e. calories, heartbeat, distance, GPS map, workout etc)
Shows relevant information while hiking (i.e. at least time, distance, and elevation)
Works without iPhone
Does not drain the Apple Watch battery too fast (the built-in workout app is fine in this terms, but too limited in functionalities)
Ideally has a web interface to analyze the data (like Strava or Garmin Connect)

Unfortunately there are no apps that satisfy your needs.

The Apple Watch Series 2 can track your location using its GPS receiver, but it can't determine your altitude/elevation on its own. It's technically impossible. The GPS receiver in the Apple Watch Series 2 is not as capable as the one used in current iPhones.

You can, however, use an app like ViewRanger in conjunction with an iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, 7 or 7 Plus. These devices have built-in barometers that can be used to determine your altitude.

I hope this answers your question.


Can GPS be used by more than 1 app at a time I'm looking at various apps which use GPS tracking, and was wondering if more than 1 app at a time was able to gain access to the GPS data?

For example I might want to use one app with route planning for cross country running in order to know where I should be going, and a second app to record where I actually went, and my speeds/splits/averages etc.

Because the apps are using the Background service for location data, does this limit which app is getting the data?  Only 1 music app at a time can play in the background, is the location background service different?

I would test this myself, but the apps I am looking at are not free, and I don't want to pull the trigger if I cannot use them as I want.

Yes, GPS can be used by more than one app at a time. I frequently use Runkeeper in the background for tracking my movement, and Zombies Run or Geocaching in the foreground. I've never had any issues with any of them not getting the data.


Disk Utility stuck around 50% when formatting SSD I bought a SSD drive for my early MacbookPro 2011, since my old HDD was very slow and with crazy IO activity when idle.

I started the Internet Recovery Mode and opened the Disk Utility to format the SSD as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) so that I could install MacOSX.

However the formatting process is stuck at around 50% and the estimated time just goes up. It is on a step where the drive name and information is gone: completely disappeared from Disk Utility.
The step is now called Partitioning.

I don't know if I should interrupt the process by closing the utility. It warns me that the drive may be unusable if I do so.

What should I do? It has been already more than 1 hour.

Don't be afraid to restart the process with the keyboard shortcut Command+Q. The disk will eventually be formatted on the 2nd or 3rd try.


Are there no explicit Power modes in Mac? Does Macbook Pro not provide power modes (Power Saver, High Performance, etc) like a Windows laptop?
If there is nothing like that, then I'd assume that OS X manages optimal settings itself.

Or is there something which I'm missing?

There are no build-in power modes in Mac OS X. Still, the standard configuration in Mac OS X in combination with the high capacity batteries used in the MacBooks offers quite good battery life.

If you want to optimize your energy usage, you need to manually tweak settings.

Here's, what OS X offers to save power:

System Settings -> Energy Saver

dim display when using battery
display/computer sleep

System Settings -> Display

Automatically adjust brightness

System Settings -> Security & Privacy

disable remote control infrared receiver

Menubar

Wifi Icon -> disable Wifi
Bluetooth icon -> disable Bluetooth


Flashlight turns itself off while a recording video on iPhone 5s I'm using FiLMiC to record a 30 minute video.

In FiLMiC, I turn the flashlight on and hit the record button.

(the iPhone has is the power cord connected).

After about 20 minutes the flashlight just turned itself off!

Is this some overheating issue? I can't find any documentation to suggest that it is. It's very annoying!

The iPhone flashlight uses the iPhone flash to illuminate your path.
  This uses an LED to provide the light, which lasts longer than a bulb
  you would place in your house or one that you would find in a cheap
  flashlight.

  According to Bulbs.com, “Many LEDs have a rated life of up to 50,000
  hours.” To put that in perspective, a typical LED can last almost six
  years of constant use. It is unlikely that you will use the iPhone
  flashlight for six year’s straight, so there is little chance of the
  iPhone flashlight burning out or damaging your iPhone camera flash.

http://www.gottabemobile.com/2015/02/16/iphone-flashlight-tips/

The best to do is to contact the application's Developers to report the issue ;)


Fake GPS location for specific app on iPhone Is there a way to give an app a specific location that is not the iPhone's true location?

I.e., I don't want to block location services for an app, but rather I want to make the app think it is getting location services but that the current location is different from the phone's actual location.

I have not tested any of these methods, but a quick search reveals the follwing apps / hacks that claim to do this:

iSpoofer - Claims to "Easily simulate any GPS location on your iPhone/iPad/iPod".
iTools - Claims to "Perfectly fake GPS location on an iPhone / iPad".

Source: How to fake a GPS location on your phone

A more complicated way of doing this manually, without installing any app is also described here: How to Fake Location on iPhone Without Jailbreak.


21.5 inch retina iMac used as external monitor I am thinking of purchasing this little fella http://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/imac?product=MK452LL/A&step=config# and (also) using it as an external monitor to my MacBook Pro (mid 2014).

Is it possible?

Yes, in the sense you can share the screen over a internet connection. There will be a noticeable small delay as information is exchanged over the internet connection. What you would normally see on the iMac is the same as seen on the Mac Book Pro. The displays would mirror each other. If you had an actually external monitor connected to the Mac Book Pro and you are not mirroring the displays, then what you would see on the single iMac display is what is shown on both the internal and external Mac Book Pro displays. So in this case, the iMac would mirror both the internal and external Mac Book Pro displays.

No, in the sense of an actual external monitor. There is no input jack on the iMac like you would find on an actual external monitor.

Other than this, I do think it is possible for you to buy another computer.


How to set up new iPhone without deleting its data? I had my first iPhone synched with my Macbook, then I bought a second iPhone, a 3GS, and I still haven't synchronized it with my Macbook. In fact, I'm not sure I set this 3GS up with any computer at all: I don't remember setting up this new 3GS with any computer (is there any way I can doublecheck this from the iPhone itself?).

I have been using this 3GS for months, and now it's full of vital data that has not been backed up anywhere. Also, its iOS has never been updated. For these reasons, I'd like to synch it with my iTunes, so that I can back it up, and update iOS.

When I connect the 3GS to my MacBook, iTunes 10 warns me that:

"This computer has been previously synced with and iPhone or another iOS device"

I then have two options:
1) "set up as new iPhone"
2) "restore from the backup of" (here I see my first iPhone's backups)

Obviously I don't want to overwrite my current 3GS data with backups from another phone. Also, I don't want to erase or loose any data currently present on my 3GS.

My question is: how can I backup the data from this 3GS without loosing anything ?

I strongly fear that choosing "set up as new iPhone" will erase everything currently present on my 3GS.

Firstly you have to configure iTunes not to auto-sync.

Then, you plug your iPhone, and back it up.


Is there a way to unlock to Home screen without swiping up? In short, I would like my iPhone X to go to the Home screen (first page of apps) immediately after Face ID unlocks my phone, without having to swipe up from the Notifications screen.

It's not possible without any touch, but you can make it just a touch instead of a swipe by creating an Assistive Touch gesture for swiping up, then triggering this gesture instead of swiping.


Python program does not display correctly on 10.13, but works on old MacBook I asked this question https://stackoverflow.com/questions/49955313/toplevel-does-not-create-new-independent-windows-on-macos on Stack Overflow, thinking it was a Python programming problem.

Since then, a number of users have reported no issue, and I installed Python 3.6.5 on an old MacBook, running 10.12.6 and the code runs as expected.

Can anyone suggest why it does not work on my new iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, 2017) running 10.13.4 and more importantly what I can do to change this.

The program also fails to run correctly on a 2011 MacBook Pro running 10.13.3 under Python 3.6.4

The following show the display, and after resizing.

I can drag the 3 Toplevel() windows on screen, and they then display normally.

Running the program on Linux Python 3.5.3 shows:-

I upgraded to https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.6.5/python-3.6.5-macosx10.9.pkg  (which has an included version of Tcl/Tk 8.6) on both the 2011 MacBook Pro and iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, 2017) which both exhibited the same problem, so it would seem to be a problem with the Python interface to macOS 10.13

I currently have the Anaconda version of Python 3.5.4 installed on 10.13.4 and python3 test.py at the shell prompt gave me the expected result.

I can only suggest that you have a broken tk/tcl install somewhere. This is probably due to the problems mentioned on this page. I would suggest uninstalling all versions of Python 3 and then installing either the Anaconda version or the Homebrew version. I prefer the Anaconda version as it allows me to easily install Jupyter and they look after these sort of compatibility problems well.


Recommended way to move data when changing hard drive in a Mac I'm considering upgrading the SSD in my mid 2014 MacBook Pro. I'm wondering:

If I backup my hard drive with Time Machine, will I be able to use Time Machine to paste my current content (whole or parts, OS, documents, configuration etc.) to the new (and bigger) SSD?
Would it be relevant (performance wise) to do a fresh install of macOS instead of pasting my old HD content (OS included)?
Any other things I should consider during this upgrade?

I assume you purposing making a Time Machine backup to a external third drive then use the Migration Assistant to restore from this backup. Another option would be to put the old drive in a shell and plug into a USB port. You could then just use the Migration Assistant to restore after a fresh install of macOS to the new SSD.


Burning CD images to Bootable USB Why can I copy a Linux ISO directly to a USB using dd, but in order to make a bootable USB using a FAT32 filesystem I need to convert the ISO to an UDRW image?

The Windows iso image needs to be converted to a Read/Write format so the "Boot Camp Support Software" can be added to the USB flash drive.

Say, for Example, you wanted to use the Boot Camp Assistant to create a USB flash drive for the purposes of installing Windows 7. Apple lists the steps at the link "Perform a new install of Windows 7". Step 11 requires using the Finder application to manually copy the "Boot Camp Support Software" to the USB flash drive. Of course, for newer versions of Windows, the Boot Camp Assistant does this step for you.


See what a previously purchased app costs on iOS App Store How can I on the iOS App Store see what an app that I've already bought costs at the moment?

If you're looking for the current price (which might not be the price you paid), you can Google search for the product and Google will display the App Store price in the results:


How to automatically hide notifications after a timeout in OS X Sierra? Is it possible to configure the notifications that they disappear after a timeout in OS X Sierra?

Currently they never disappear until I click on them, which is super annoying. I can't find any settings in the UI to configure this.

System Prefs > Notifications
On a per-app basis, you need to switch from Alerts to Banners ...

  Banners appear in the upper-right corner and go away automatically. Alerts stay on screen until dismissed.


Recover Apple ID despite deleting email address and not being able to answer the security questions I have an old Apple ID that I've lost access to because I deleted the email address it was tied to and I can't remember the security answers to anymore. I have some purchases tied to it, but the credit card info has been long removed -- it'd be expired by now, anyway. I called Apple Security, but was unable to regain access. Still, I'm wondering if anyone has been in a similar situation and how they went about recovering their account.

It’s not possible anymore to recover your Apple ID over the phone. You could, in the past, but not now. Consider your Apple ID dead. And they won’t make an exception.

Source: http://www.macrumors.com/2012/09/24/apple-flooded-with-icloud-password-reset-requests-amid-tightened-account-security-controls/


Mac won't show screen Since the beginning of today, the time now being midday, I've been having issues with my MacBook Pro. Even when I closed everything it refuses to work. Basically when I close the lid, everything is fine but when I open it the screen just doesn't turn on. The sleep light remains at a single level of light, rather than brightening and dimming over the course of several seconds. If I hold the power button down sometimes it will bring the screen back after what looks like a progress bar and sometimes it will reboot the machine.

If anyone can help me, it'd be much appreciated.

If you have another device you could try a remote connection. Personally I would be tempted to SSH into the Macbook and see what processes are at play.

This will of course only work if you have 'remote login' enabled on your Mac.

  System Preferences > Sharing > Remote Login

From an iPhone you could then install an SSH client (search: ssh) from the App store and try connecting in.

After login you could try

$ ps -A |more

to list all processes currently running a page a time (space to advance)
or

$ top

this will give you a list of processes (q to quit)


some system binaries are lost After installing some RAM my macbook pro would not start,
diskutil showed HDD failure.

Booting in single user mode and running fsck several times to repair the disk lead to a running system.

But now, some of the Unix binaries (as well as some data) - like rm and less - are missing.
I have copied them from another mac.

The question is: if I reinstall OSX will it also install those and any other that might be missing?

If you mean doing an upgrade install from the recovery partition, it does replace many system files with the initial versions. It might not replace all files though, and for example setting or cache files might also be corrupted.

If you have backups, it won't take that long to try it out and see if there are still things that don't work. I'd just erase and reinstall OS X though.


How do I hide the parent folder of the user home folders in File Sharing? I'm running 10.8 server and I have a folder named Users and it is the parent folder for every local network user's home folder. Now, when the user connects to the server he sees his home folder, but also the parent folder Users. He can even list the contents of it.

How can I hide this parent folder? I don't want it to show up at all when connecting. The only thing the users should see is their home folder. Nothing else. Since the Users folder is the parent folder, it cannot be unshared.

Mac is mostly unix under the hood.  Try setting the permissions of the /Users folder to everyone only execute.

E.g. Currently:

bash-3.2# ls -ld /Volumes/Users
drwxrwxrwx  10 root  admin  510 23 May  2012 /Volumes/Users

bash-3.2# chmod o-rw /Volumes/Users

bash-3.2# ls -ld /Volumes/Users
drwxrwx--x  10 root  admin  510 23 May  2012 /Volumes/Users

OS X has addition access control tricks, so this may not work.


How can I share a Cisco VPN connection? I am using ICS on my Early 2011 MBP (latest version of Snow Leopard) to share a connection to various devices, e.g. XBOX.

Normally this is by manually configuring the network settings on the client, and connecting to the MBP via Ethernet.

I can share the Airport connection wifi fine, but when I connect to a VPN using Cisco client it does not work. The Cisco adapter seems to be hidden when trying to select it as a source option for ICS.

Any possibility to recreate the Cisco connection using Native mac client?

I don't know if this option was also available in Snow Leopard, but if you are on Lion you could try the following:

Set up the native cisco client - if you don't know how, you can use this handy guide I created a few days back
Once you have tried and confirmed that everything works, your VPN connection should show up as one of the options in the Internet Sharing part of Preferences Sharing.
select the connection, choose on which network connection you'd like to share it and you're done.


OS X Numbers: How to use a spreadsheet value as a label I have a basic spreadsheet chart, which also includes a single labeled cell (set as a slider) that is used as a constant multiplier.   (In this case, it is used to vary the number of workdays.)

I would like to use that value in the title of the chart: I.e.

"Salaries normalized to {NormDays} schooldays"

If there is no direct way, in the alternative what is the best way to display it floating on the chart on the chart in numeric form, possible with a label.... i.e.:   Workdays: {NormDays}

As far as I can see, chart titles and labels (and text boxes) can't contain formulae.  So I think this isn't possible in the ways that you suggest.

An alternative is to place a single-cell table on top of the chart, with the cell containing a formula like = "Salaries normalised to " & B1 & " school days".

I'm using Numbers '09... hopefully this still works in later versions...


MBP freezes for 30 seconds all the time since this afternoon I'm looking to find the cause why I'm getting the spinning beachball on my MBPro all the time since this afternoon.
I can work for like 30 seconds and get a spinning beachball for like 30 seconds. During that time OSX freezes. I can move the mouse cursor but click nothing. When I write something on the keyboard it is processed after the freeze.

Here's what else changed:

booting takes like 10 minutes (compared to 20 seconds normally)
Stop sign when power up the Mac
can't launch in safe mode
no start sound

How can I investigate the issue? Everything seems to work but it is awfully slow...
I've got a 480GB SSD and a 750GB HDD (in the CD Mount). The MacBook has 16GB of RAM and is running the Gold Master of El Captain.

@Tetsujin is completely correct about the disk. My first hope is that you have a recent backup. If you don't, try to get one, but if the disk is actually the source of the problem, getting a new backup may be difficult or lengthy.

If you don't have a recent backup, you Time Machine with an external hard drive will produce one for you. My preferred first-line-of-defense backup, however, is a clone, which I create with Carbon Copy Cloner. Once this software has successfully created a clone, you should be able to boot from it with little noticeable difference from booting from the internal drive (other than, hopefully, a lack of trouble).

Once you have a clone and have booted from it, if that confirms that the problem has been resolved you can be pretty sure your hard drive is the problem and take steps to replace it.


What is an OEM SSD for Macbook Pro I have a Macbook Pro 13" Retina Display (Early 2015). I only have 128 GB of storage. I'm thinking of upgrading it. I've seen a lot of articles about purchasing OWC or Trascend's drives; however, I have not seen any article about purchasing OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) drives. I found some on eBay -- they are just a lot more expensive!

Is there something I'm missing? Do people not recommend them because of price, or because they are not really original?

If I buy one of these drives, can I hook them up to my MacBook just like I would a Trascend or OWC Aura drives?

OEM means Original Equipment Manufacturer.

Manufacturers (like Apple, Microsoft, Ford, etc.) don't actually make every component in the devices they make.

For example, Apple doesn't actually make the memory, the screen or the SSD that's inside your MacBook.   They are made by other companies like Samsung, Micron, and LG.

When you purchase an OEM product (i.e. a drive), you're purchasing the same component that would have been installed.

What you are seeing on eBay are usually "pulls" from salvaged machines.  The drive they pull from a salvaged MacBook Pro, for example, will be listed as the OEM drive.

They are usually more expensive because there are very few 3rd party options avilable (i.e. Samsung doesen't offer PCIe SATA drives with the Apple spec or LG doesn't offer "Retina" quality displays elsewhere; usually all by contract)


How do I transfer a note with 6+ images from an iPhone to a Mac? I take notes on my phone (text, to-do lists), take photos from within the notes (click (+) and "Take Photo or Video"), and then need to merge those notes into a larger report on my laptop. I am creating the notes with the Notes app on an iPhone 7 Plus (iOS 12.3.1) and trying to transfer these to a MacBook Pro (Mojave 10.14.5). When these notes have six or more images I am unable to transfer.

I have tried the following three options:

1. AirDrop, the ideal solution, and why it doesn't work

AirDrop worked fine regardless of how many images in a note as of at least December 2018. Now, AirDrop only works if the note has 5 or fewer images. That notes with fewer than 5 images work, shows that connectivity and settings are not issues.

However, trying to AirDrop a note with 6+ images always fails. I attempt to share the note, click the icon for my laptop under AirDrop, and it almost immediately says "Failed" and my laptop receives no notice to accept or decline.

2. Create PDF, an okay option, and why it doesn't work

Converting the note, complete with images, to a PDF and then transferring the PDF via AirDrop should theoretically work.

However, if the note has 4 or more images, the share icon -> "Create PDF" option brings up a mostly blank screen that says "Unsupported file format data." Click "Done", "Delete PDF", and try the share icon -> "Create PDF" option again and the Notes app crashes and disappears.

3. Collaborate on the note, a good option, and why it doesn't work

Theoretically, you can add people to the note to work on it collaboratively.

However, if I share the note from my phone iCloud account with my laptop iCloud account (they are different), it sends an email or message with an invitation that must be accepted in order to see the note on the laptop. I have MFA enabled on my iCloud accounts and accepting invitations does not appear compatible with MFA. I click the invitation link and I successfully authenticate through MFA. Apple.com shows a blank screen and the invitation is not accepted (back on my phone I can see the status is "invited" still). Various browsers and restarts and clearing cookies and relogging into iCloud on all devices and many refreshes and it still just gives me a blank page.

(The official Apple Support Community does not work with MFA either it appears.)

My question:

How do I transfer a note with 6+ images from my iPhone to my Mac?

duplicate the note as many times needed.
erase photos in the duplicate notes so that there are 5 or less of them  pic 1 to 5 in the first note, pic 6 to 11 in the second - and so on ...
airdrop them to the computer - assemble the notes in one (or put in a folder) on the computer.


How do I find out how many photos, videos are stored in iCloud? I'm trying to track a problem with my wife's iPhone Photos app taking about 7GB despite "Optimize storage" being enabled. I want to compare her phone to mine since I suspect that it's storage full res versions.

Open the Photos app. In the bottom-right corner, tap Albums, then the top-left album named All Photos.

At the bottom of that album, you will see the exact number of photos and videos in your photo library, including any Hidden photos.

Optimize Storage doesn't mean that photos are never downloaded from iCloud. iOS will download higher-resolution versions of your photos and videos as they are viewed/zoomed/edited/shared. These higher-resolution photos will not be purged until space is needed.

It is normal for the amount of storage taken up by the Photos app to grow over time. On my 128 GB iPhone, I have 60 GB of storage taken up by photos and videos (out of a 140 GB library), even with Optimize Storage selected. But since I also have 30 GB free, there is no need for iOS to delete anything yet.


How can I create a reminder on my Apple Watch? I would like to create an iCloud reminder using my Apple Watch while running. Siri is not working and speech recognition is not working either since I'm offline.

Is there an app that allows me to type a reminder?

There's Proud app on the iTunes where you can create tasks without dictation. It costs 4.99$.


How to make a bootable USB key from an .iso image on Mac OS X? Possible Duplicate:
  How do I make a bootable USB flash drive for a MacBook Air?

How to make a bootable USB key from any .iso image on Mac OS X?

The easiest way is to right click on the .iso file and select 'Burn Disk Image XXX to Disc...". This will run Burn app with appropriate settings. When ready, hit the Burn button.

Here is longer version for advanced users.

Based on this article, you should:

Open up Disk Utility.
Select the USB key (select the root device, not its partitions).
Select the partition section as shown below:

Change the Scheme to 1 Partition
Change the Format to Free Space
Click Apply

  WARNING! THIS WILL DESTROY ALL DATA ON THE KEY!

Once it’s completed you can quit out of Disk Utility.

  The purpose of doing this is mainly to ensure that the USB key is in a consistent known state and also to ensure that any volumes are not mounted by OS X. It is not required and you can skip it if you’d rather just unmount the volumes yourself.

Next you need to prepare ISO image by following the below command:

[#542]: hdiutil convert -format UDRW -o debian-6.0.7-amd64-netinst.img debian-6.0.7-amd64-netinst.iso
Reading Master Boot Record (MBR : 0)…
Reading Debian 6.0.7 amd64 1             (Apple_ISO : 1)…
Reading  (Windows_NTFS_Hidden : 2)…
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Elapsed Time:  2.054s
Speed: 81.8Mbytes/sec
Savings: 0.0%
created: /Users/evan/Downloads/debian-6.0.7-amd64-netinst.img.dmg

Finally you need to copy the image to your USB drive. First identify your disk device path by:

[#543]: diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
   0: GUID_partition_scheme *250.1 GB disk0
   1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
   2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 249.7 GB disk0s2

/dev/disk1
   #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
   0: *1.0 GB disk1

  Update: We want to use the RAW disk device so that our copy will happen much faster because the RAW disk device provides unbuffered access to the device (See this Apple mailing list post for more info). This is accomplished by simply prepending ‘r’ to the device so that /dev/disk1 is going to become /dev/rdisk1

  Update 2: Specifying a blocksize of 1m will also significantly speed things up.

Next use dd command to copy the image over:

[#544]: dd if=./xbmc-9.11-live-repack.img.dmg of=/dev/rdisk1 bs=1m

  On the command line we specify the Input File using if= and the Output File using of= and dd will copy the data from input to output, block by block.

  Once it’s completed you can exit Terminal and remove the USB key from your OS X machine, it should now be able to bootup your ISO on another machine.

To boot the system from such a drive, press ⌥ immediately after rebooting.


iMessage Deletion from physical device How long are iMessages that are not backed up to the cloud, but are deleted stored on the physical device of an iPhone X (12.4). Are these physically deleted or still available in the unallocated space of the device and recoverable from SQL or another code script - the message i'm looking for is around 1.5 months old?

According to this website it is two years. There are some tools that offer services like this by plugging your iPhone into your computer if you search around.


PDF viewer that makes reference checking easy I'm an academic and I read a lot of papers on-screen in pdf format. Scientific papers always have a list of references at the back, and when reading them it's often necessary to check a reference, which means taking a quick look at the list at the end of the paper, and then returning to where I was reading before. Sometimes these pdfs include hyperlinks to the references, but often they don't.

I would like to know if there are any pdf readers available for OS X that have features designed to make this task easy, of quickly navigating to the end of the document and quickly navigating back to exactly where I left off.

I'm not sure exactly what such a feature would be like - I don't want to constrain the question too much in case there's a way of doing it that I haven't thought of - but what I'm imagining is simply that I can have two 'views' into the pdf and a keyboard shortcut to switch between them. Clicking a hyperlink would open it in the other view, so that the keypress would bring you back to where you were. In case there aren't any hyperlinks, I could just keep one view at the reference list and the other one on the page I'm reading, and I could just switch between them as needed.

I've tried using the split-screen feature in Skim, which is better than nothing, but it's still slightly awkward for me. I have quite poor eyesight and tend to read zoomed in quite far, which means I have to keep resizing the lower panel in order to have enough space to read the main text. I also couldn't find a way to open hyperlinks in the other panel, which means I have to scroll around to find references manually, even if the document I'm reading has hyperlinks.

This is not a split screen solution, but an easy keyboard shortcut to switch between end and current view.

Preview

In Preview you can jump back and forward in your "viewing history" with cmd+[ and cmd+]. After switching to the references at the end with end (or fn+→), you can jump back at the exact same view you were before with cmd+[.

Also remember the page number that is seen in Title bar of Preview and use alt + cmd + G to navigate.

Acrobat Reader

In Acrobat you can do the same and navigate through the page history with cmd+← and cmd+→.


pwd in bash is wrong after sending directory to trash If I move a directory to the trash that I'm already cd'd into that directory, pwd will report no change in location.  I will still be able to do everything in bash normally as if there was no change in the directory, even though Finder says it doesn't exist.

pwd should always be accurate. This does not appear to be the case.

For example, I'm cd'd to this path:
/Users/me/Desktop/goingToTrash/subdir

If I move to trash /Users/me/Desktop/goingToTrash, pwd will report that I'm in /Users/me/Desktop/goingToTrash/subdir, even though the finder says it doesn't exist.  So if I recreate the deleted directory, bash will be working from the old directory (I'm assuming in the trash, haven't verified yet) instead of the new one I just created, and pwd will provide no clue this happened.

Much worse, if I "move to trash" a directory and I'm cd'd to one of it's subdirectories, then recreate the directory structure, from a sub directory I can cd ../subdir, I'm magically back into the "new" directory, even though the parent was "moved to trash" instead of remaining in the directory structure that was moved to trash.

This behavior actually has nothing to do with the .Trash directory.  You can get into a similar situation by moving your current working directory to any other location.  The pwd command and echo $PWD will both be inaccurate.

What I have found is that starting a new bash process will correctly identify the new location of your current working directory.  Therefore a workaround would be to simply "refresh" your current bash process with a new one with the command exec bash.


How can I use wired ethernet + external monitor together on my Macbook Air (Late 2013)? I have a late 2013 MBA which only has USB 3 ports and one Thunderbolt port. I've currently been using a Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter to use wired internet, but I'd also like to use an external monitor at the same time. Are there any USB to HDMI or USB to Ethernet (provided that the internet speed won't be decreased) adapters which I could use?

Thanks

Apple sells an USB Ethernet adapter. But since it's USB 2 it's likely to speed down the network capabilities.

There are other adapters with USB3 which seems to be faster (and compatible with OSX) .


Why can I not edit some photos Imported from an iPhone to Windows Vista? Lots of people are complaining about this issue on the Apple Support forums.

Some people have some work-arounds but there aren't any explanations of what's going on.  I've checked out permissions of the file and they all seem fine.  I haven't delved too deep yet but I was wondering if anyone over hear had any ideas.

I myself have suffered from the same problem since the iOS 5 beta on my iPhone 4.

iOS 5.1 (but I've been experiencing the issue begining with the iOS 5
beta)
iPhone 4s (but I've been experiencing the issue begining with
iOS 5 beta on my iPhone 4)
Windows Vista Ultimate
Windows Live Photo Gallery (used for import and editing)

The problem seems to be getting slightly better since some of the photos are now imported with the correct orientation but some are not.  In any case I can't edit ANY of the pictures regardless of the correct orientation or not.

Error received when attempting to rotate photo:

Error received when attempting to crop photo:

It looks like a complete description of the problem and how to avoid (but not remedy it) is given at Neowin.

Briefly, taking a picture with the new volume button shutter release sets a flag that Windows doesn't understand and so it just gives that vague error message and refuses to mess with the image.

It follows that the images you can manipulate were taken using the on-screen shutter release (?)


I want to move my old pictures to iCloud to free up iPhone storage space (iPhone already at full capacity) Basically I want to remove these pictures from my phone onto the cloud.
My purpose is to free up local storage as much as possible (for Apps and other stuff).
I'm doing this for my relative's phone, I don't use an iPhone. I have bought the the necessary storage, but I don't want to make a mistake and lose the photos.

iCloud is a syncing service, so any photos you delete on the phone will also get deleted in iCloud. This is obviously not what you want.
You can configure the phone to automatically manage local storage though by opening Settings, scrolling down to Photos and selecting the "Optimize iPhone storage" option. This will store the full resolution photos in iCloud while just keeping a low-res version on the phone itself. If required (for editing or sharing) the full-res version will get downloaded again automatically.
See Apple's support article for more details on how to setup and use iCloud Photos.


Are there any third party displays that have similar resolution and image quality to the Thunderbolt Display? The cinema and thunderbolt displays are expensive. As such, I'm thinking about a third party display to attach to my MacBook. I currently have a Dell 24" monitor, but the color is waaaay off. The IT guy at work was telling me about this other 27" monitor that has the number of pixels and IPS, just like the 27" iMac. (I'm still wondering about color temperature etc.)

So, are there any third party monitors that are similar, if not identical (casing and stand/mount aside) to the Thunderbolt display?

The last time I checked up on this, about 6 months ago, the only monitor I could find that matches the Apple display was the Dell UltraSharp U2412M. However it's a 24" and it wasn't that cheap. Dell does however have a bigger model in the range which is the Dell UltraSharp U2711.

Both are brilliant.

I ended up buying a 27" iMac and stopped looking further


macOS Mojave Bluetooth connection issue I have a problem with the Mac Mini 2018 and its bluetooth.
The problem is that I cannot see my mac via bluetooth with other devices.
Magic KeyBoard only works by wire. Bluetooth turns on and off, but can not create a connection with the keyboard, and also does not see other devices.

Already tried to do a reboot, reset the module, deleting files com.apple.Bluetooth.plist - did not help.

output logs bluetoothd when I turn on bluetooth:

2019-07-24 14:30:22.195 bluetoothd[1039:58307] [setSystemPreference] syncs returns false
2019-07-24 14:30:22.196 bluetoothd[1039:58307] [setSystemPreference] syncs returns false
2019-07-24 14:30:22.218 bluetoothd[1039:58307] Nonconformant HID device with vendorID 4c productID 26c does not specify HIDBootDevice
2019-07-24 14:30:22.373 bluetoothd[1039:58307] [setSystemPreference] syncs returns false
2019-07-24 14:30:22.373 bluetoothd[1039:58307] [setSystemPreference] syncs returns false
2019-07-24 14:30:22.373 bluetoothd[1039:58307] [setSystemPreference] syncs returns false
2019-07-24 14:30:22.384 bluetoothd[1039:58307] [setSystemPreference] syncs returns false
2019-07-24 14:30:22.384 bluetoothd[1039:58307] [setSystemPreference] syncs returns false
2019-07-24 14:30:22.384 bluetoothd[1039:58307] [setSystemPreference] syncs returns false
2019-07-24 14:30:22.384 bluetoothd[1039:58307] [setSystemPreference] syncs returns false
2019-07-24 14:30:22.384 bluetoothd[1039:58307] [setSystemPreference] syncs returns false

2019-07-24 14:47:23.585 bluetoothd[1214:76246]  manageStateMachine entry:
    clients(0)
    founddevices(0)
    failedNR(0)
    pendingnames(0)
    _currentActivity = 0

output of bluetoothd logs when trying to connect a bluetooth device (keyboard):

Create connection failed (0x4) for device: 10-94-BB-BC-8A-90

Has anyone encountered a similar problem?

The problem was in the disconnected cable to the bluetooth module.
Fixed


Set up ad-hoc FTP server? A client wants to send me a very large file (3+ GB), but I'm kind of at a loss on how to receive it. My Dropbox is full, and I don't have any other kind of file sharing service. Sites like WeTransfer.com have a file size limit.

So, I looked into using Homebrew to install vsftpd or proftpd, but they're not that straightforward to set up. I really just want a simple FTP server I can launch, make up a username and password, and have my client FTP in to upload the file directly to my Mac.

I need something that will let me specify a different port number other than the standard FTP port.

How can I do this?

I'm using Mac OS 10.9.5, BTW.

You could install OS X Server. Then you will be able to start a ftp server in few clicks.


How can I benchmark my new RAM? Based on the responses to my earlier question about memory replacement, I plan to upgrade soon.  That said, once I've acquired and installed said memory, what is the recommended Mac software I should use to burn in and test the new memory?  Are there any free options?

I've always used Memtest86 on a bootable disk to do memory testing. Not sure what you mean by "burn in" though. Other than testing for stability, bad block and general good-functioning of your RAM there isn't anything else you need to do. Using the RAM doesn't actually make it perform any better or worse than when it was initially installed in your machine.

Burn Memtest86 to a CD. Boot from the CD. Let it cycle through all your blocks and it will produce a report.

There's an OS X build of Memtest that's available through this OS X Daily article but I've never used it. Can't speak to how well it works.

There's also memtester and it's available as a Homebrew package:

> brew info memtester
memtester 4.2.2
http://pyropus.ca/software/memtester/
Not installed
https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/commits/master/Library/Formula/memtester.rb

To install it:

> brew install memtester

Again, haven't used it so I can't speak about how well it works, but it's a userspace program so it means you don't have to reboot your machine to get it to work. I'd probably start with that and if it doesn't give you a suitable report, move on to Memtest86 on a CD.


How can I access a web server running locally when I don't have network access? I want to host a website on my MacBook for debugging. But often I don't have any possibilities to connect to a network, so how am I able to access it when I'm not connected to a network?

Even if you are not connected to a network, you shold be able to access a website running locally by using http://localhost/ in the browser of your choice.


Is it possible to delete or lower the permissions of the current account? Exactly what the title says.  I would love to know if you can fully delete or lower the permissions of an admin account that is currently in use (from aforementioned account).  Thank you in advance!

No - admin users or not, you can't delete the logged in user using the system preferences panel.

You can remove admin permissions, but until all processes get killed (logging out will also work), the running processes are still privileged.


Bootcamp Windows 7 external mic I have a 15 inch 2014 MBPr running windows 7 in bootcamp that I use for games. I bought a Razer Kraken headset due to it having a 4 pin 3.5mm jack and adapter for 2x3.5mm for compatibility with as many devices as possible.

The issue I am having is that when I plug the jack in all that comes up is the headset, no mic.

The problem with using the internal mic is that it picks up way to much noise from the internal fans to be usable.

Is there any way to fix this? Ive been googleing for the last hour or 2 with absolutely no luck.

I do have a USB audio jack I can use but that defeats the purpose of buying this headset in the first place.

Thanks.

I have the same issue.  I found this thread which basically states, it is a known bug with Bootcamp.  There has been no fix for like 4-5 years:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3369017?start=15&tstart=0

I downloaded the latest version of bootcamp (5.1) to no avail :(

If you check the version of Bootcamp you are running (right click on the icon in the taskbar and click About Bootcamp) to see if you are running the latest.

Turns out I was running 4.0 and the latest for my laptop is 5.1.5621 and found here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3369017?start=15&tstart=0


How can I open a Terminal window directly from my current Finder location? I was wondering if there was any was I could right click inside any instance of a "Finder" window such that I have an option that says "Open Terminal Here". It would be really helpful.

As of Mac OS X Lion 10.7, Terminal provides Services for opening a new terminal window or tab at the selected folder in Finder. They also work with absolute pathnames selected in text (in any application). You can enable these services with System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Services. Look for "New Terminal at Folder" and "New Terminal Tab at Folder". You can also assign them shortcut keys.

In addition, you can now drag folders (and pathnames) onto the Terminal application icon to open a new terminal window, or onto a tab bar in a terminal window to create a new tab in that window. If you drag onto a tab (rather than into the terminal view) it will execute a complete cd command to switch to that directory without any additional typing.

As of OS X Mountain Lion 10.8, Command-Dragging into a terminal will also execute a complete cd command.

Note: The New Terminal at Folder service will become active when you select a folder in Finder. You cannot simply have the folder open and run the service "in place". Go back to the parent folder, select the relevant folder, then activate the service via the Services menu or context menu.


Will upgranding my MBP to an internal SSD, improve also speed of reading external non SSD HDrives? So, I'm thinking of upgrading my MBP (13' late 2011) with an internal SSD drive. I'm wondering if the increase in speed of read and write on the SSD internal drive, will increase peroformance and stability while reading data from other external HDD drives. I have a lot of data stored on external drives (iTunes, Photos, Audio sound libraries, ...) and wondering if I can expect significant improve on dealing with that external data on a daily basis. Thank you.

Honestly, it is a waste not to have an SSD as an internal drive in a MacBook (or any computer in general), you will understand it once you have one. Of course, the speed of your internal drive has absolutely nothing to do with that of external ones. The latter is only governed by the respective bus speed they are connected to.


MBP Boot Camp Windows 8 brightness issue I am unable to get full screen brightness on my 13" MacBook Pro when booted to Windows 8 Professional. As a result, I can't use my machine outside unless I'm booted to OS X. I checked all the power settings in Windows and everything's already set to 100%. Is there a workaround for this?

It appears that there is an Adaptive Brightness feature in Windows 8 that messes with the overall brightness of the MBP

If you just installed Windows 8 on your laptop and the screen won’t
stay at the brightness level you want, it’s probably because the
adaptive brightness feature isn’t working right on your system. Here’s
how to disable it.

Open up the Windows desktop with Win + D, click the power management
icon in the tray, and then choose More power options from the menu.
Once here, click the Change plan settings link on the selected
plan.
Then click the Change advanced power settings link.
And now, browse down to Display > Enable adaptive brightness, and
change the settings there to Off.

Naturally, it would be best to have the feature actually work, so you
could make sure to update your drivers. If you still want to disable,
here’s how to do it.
Just so we’re clear, here’s how to change the brightness on your
Windows 8 laptop… hit the Win+I shortcut key combination (that’s a
capital i), and then you’ll see the brightness control right there.

Disable Windows 8 Adaptive Brightness


How can I execute sudo commands as a cron job? I'm trying to execute a shell script as a cron job. The problem is that my script needs to be run as a super user. I tried it with just writing sudo infront of the command in my crontab file, but it didn't work.

Cron is not in any way deprecated, but LaunchD has more versatility and is used, and actively maintained/supported by Apple.  Their best practices guide is here

LaunchDaemon jobs(versus LaunchAgents, which take on a users id) run in root's context without needing to enable the root user. All that is required is a properly formed XML file(you can just copy-paste pre-existing ones in /Library/LaunchDaemons, substituting your script for the ProgramArguments with the applicable schedule keys) with the proper ownership/permissions.  An older writeup can be found here:
afp548's launchd-in-depth article


How to terminate connections to shared PCs? I don't know why this PCs are showing up in the shared computer and when clicked on anyone of the them it's showing that I am connected to this PC as a guest. I never tried to connect to this PC then how did the connection happen so my question is how can I remove this PCs and terminate the connection

I have tried the solutions mentioned here Mystery computer appearing in the Finder's source list but nothing seems to work!

I don't know why this PCs are showing up in the shared computer

They are showing up because they have a zero configuration network service like Bonjour or mDNS enabled that is responding to broadcasts from your Mac.

  I never tried to connect to this PC then how did the connection happen

As stated in the comments by Steve Chambers if you have guest access enabled on the client, it will immediately connect when you select it.  This is not a problem.  If you want to turn this functionality off, disable guest access on the client itself.

  so my question is how can I remove this PCs and terminate the
  connection

You can't really "remove" this PC because it's working as expected.  Your Mac is broadcasting a "request" for all networks nodes with a zero configuration protocol to respond and that PC does.  What you are seeing is a list of computers that your Mac has found (not necessarily connected to).  It's very similar to Windows "Network Neighborhood" where you can see the computers on your network subnet.

The connection will terminate after a few minutes of idle activity.


iPhone X stuck in recovery mode after maxing out storage. Getting "Error Code 14" So a couple of weeks ago I restarted my iPhone after it started glitching like crazy, when I tried to boot it up again it got stuck on the Apple logo. A couple of days later I found an article that said something about booting it into recovery mode and then updating it through iTunes would fix it, well big mistake. Now it's stuck in recovery mode. I have tried every possible thing I can think of to boot it out.
Including:
Updating it in iTunes
Updating it in Finder
Switching cables
Switching computers, from Mac to Windows
Using Reiboot to boot it out of recovery mode
Using Reiboot Pro (Paid Version of Reiboot) to "Repair the operating system"
Using 3u tools to repair it.
Using checkra1n to jailbreak it in DFU mode
Using a Windows computer to try to mount the iPhone as a removable storage device
And a couple of other 3rd party tools. None of which have successfully fixed it.
Any help or advice would be much appreciated.
P.S. This iPhone is a business phone with a lot of important information on it that hasn't been backed up in quite a long time, so it's very important for me to try to get the information off of it.
Thanks

If the iPhone is currently stuck in a reboot loop, try to enter DFU mode and restore it using iTunes.
DFU mode is entered by:

Connecting to Mac with Lightning cable
Press Volume Up, then Volume Down quickly
Press and hold right (Standby) button until display goes dark (about 10 seconds)
Keep holding Standby and also press Volume Down for 5 seconds
Keep holding Volume Down, but release Standby button

While the display stays black, iTunes or Finder should say that it found an iPhone in recovery mode and you will be given the choice to return it to factory settings which will wipe the storage and apply the latest firmware.
Entering DFU mode from a reboot loop is very tricky, since it is likely to reboot before you are finished. Try to start the procedure as soon as the Apple logo is displayed and don't be discouraged if you need a few tries.
If that doesn't fix it I would contact Apple, maybe the storage is faulty. Flash storage needs free space for wear leveling and running it near full for a long time can cause a lot faster aging of the memory cells. I would recommend keeping at least 20% free space to counter that.


Disable network device for specified period of time Recently I converted an old MacBook into a server, running OS X 10.6.8 (the normal, non-server edition). I use it as my VPN server, my bittorrent rsync server, web server, ssh server and so forth.

Sometimes I manually disconnect the LAN cable from my server to speed up my connection for online gaming, afterwards I plug back the LAN cable.

What is a good way to temporary disable the LAN device on my MacBook running OS X 10.6.8? Preferably that it automatically enables again after a specified period of time (some sort of timer). I would prefer a method via SSH.

Selfcontrol

Selfcontrol is an app build for a different purpose, it disables your network connectivity for a certain amount of time to keep you from visiting social websites and keep you more productive. It makes it possible for you to create a white-list or a black-list to allow or block certain ip-adress/sites.

So I login to the server, set Selfcontrol to 1h. Now my internet connection from my server is disabled for 1h and will automatically come back afterwards.


Do any iPhone 5 docking stations offer both audio out and a lightning connector for charging? What iPhone 5 docking stations are on the market that provide an analog audio out connection similar to Apple's iPhone 4 dock?

I currently use the above dock with my 4S for charging at night, but if I make an upgrade to the new iPhone, I'd like a Lightning dock.

EDIT: I found one option on Amazon, but it appears to be low quality (some ship with Lightning port in the back, others with 30-pin port). I'm also concerned that plugging a 1/8" jack into the headphone port will effectively silence my morning alarms.

An OEM dock just popped up in store.apple.com after the 9/10 event: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MF030ZM/A/iphone-5s-dock


How can I know which setting TinkerTool is modifying? Is there any way to easily know which setting a TinkerTool option relates to in Mac OS X?

For example, the Show Hidden and System Files setting seems to be related to com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles. What about all the other settings?

Here’s a generic solution to find out what changed after applying a certain setting. I used this to create my .osx file which is full of hidden OS X tweaks.

Open Terminal.app, cd into a temporary directory, and check the difference between defaults read output before and after changing the setting.

cd /tmp
defaults read > a
# change the setting using TinkerTool or however you like
defaults read > b
diff a b # view the difference

If you’d rather use a UI to view the diffs instead of the diff binary, you could download the Kaleidoscope.app trial.

Alternatively, you could do a Spotlight search within the past hour/day/minute for plist files. That will only tell you which file changed, though; you would still have to figure out which setting in the file was tweaked.


Change Image Format of a Screenshot Lets say I want to save my screenshots as a .jpg instead of .png. How would I do this? Is there a bash command I can enter or a setting I can toggle?

You can use the following Terminal command to change the default screenshot format (I'm reading that GIF and PDF and some other formats are also supported):

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg

(You can also set the location key to a path to a directory in which you'd like the screenshots to be saved, as opposed to your Desktop.)

Also, the screencapture command can be used to save a screenshot to a specific filename, and configure more options (such as window shadows, timed capture, etc.).