Mac OS X Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Three things you (probably) didn't know about OS X Mavericks' name

by Erica Sadun (Jun 14th, 2013)

Mavericks is a surfing spot near Pillar Point Harbor in Northern California. Not only is it OS X's first non-cat name, it's actually named after a German Shepard named Maverick. Hard to say how many place names in California are named after dogs, but it could be an interesting trend. The name ...

DevJuice: 10.8.4 and the iOS Simulator

by Erica Sadun (Jun 5th, 2013)

TUAW reader Peter Johnson of Soluble Apps writes, "I, and a few other developers on my Facebook group, have noticed that, since yesterday's OSX update, every other run on the simulator is crashing on start. It appears to work fine when compiling and running on hardware. I thought it could be ...

Google to bring Chrome app launcher to OS X

by Steven Sande (May 21st, 2013)

Those of us who use Google's Chrome browser for OS X are familiar with how Chrome web apps can be installed and launched from within the browser. Now it appears that Google is working on a way to bring those Chrome apps even closer to the heart of your Mac by creating a Chrome apps launcher for OS ...

Timed command-line screenshots

by Erica Sadun (May 20th, 2013)

A TUAW staffer recently asked if there were a way to snapshot the exact same region of the screen over and over at timed intervals without buying third-party software. There is, but it depends on your comfort with the command line. If you're experienced in Unix scripting, read on. If not, you may ...

Preview, sips, and more: OS X image processing tools

by Erica Sadun (May 16th, 2013)

On a recent trip, I found I had failed to add copies of my auto-resizing drop tools to my travel MacBook Air. My droplets allow me to convert images to TUAW-standard sizes, namely 225 pixels for small images and 456 pixels for banner images. (See? Information you never thought you'd need to ...

Consumer alternatives to Adobe Creative Cloud: practical software choices

by Erica Sadun (May 7th, 2013)

Yesterday, Adobe introduced Creative Cloud, an on-line subscription based suite with $49.99 monthly charges that moves into the Creative Suite subscription space first started back in 2011. Existing customers of CS 3 to CS 5.5 and academics will pay $29.99 per month. Both Adobe and Microsoft are ...

Logitech G series now available: Gaming keyboards and mice for Mac

by Mike Schramm (Apr 22nd, 2013)

We heard way back in January that Logitech was possibly planning to bring its gaming peripherals to the Mac, and that's exactly what's happened. Logitech has announced that its G series of keyboards and mice, designed to entice gamers with features like lots of extra customizable buttons, ...

Play+: A YouTube viewing and discovery app for Mac OS X

by Steven Sande (Apr 18th, 2013)

Developer Saied Ghaffari of It's About Time was perplexed by something recently; while there are good dedicated YouTube apps for iOS, there's nothing similar for OS X. Instead of a clean, fast app for discovering and viewing YouTube videos, Mac users must rely on web browsers and the YouTube ...

Apple revises One to One program for new customers

by Steven Sande (Apr 18th, 2013)

ifoAppleStore is reporting that Apple has changed the terms of the Apple Store One to One service, limiting how much Apple Store employees will do in terms of data migration for new Mac purchases. One to One service is offered to purchasers of new Macs for US$99 per year, providing not only ...

DevJuice: Better Objective-C associated objects

by Erica Sadun (Apr 10th, 2013)

iOS/OS X internals guru Gwynne Raskind tipped me off to a much better way of creating associated object keys. Until now, I've been doing this: static const char nametag_key; return objc_getAssociatedObject(self, (void *) &nametag_key); Turns out there's a much easier and better way. ...

Weekend Poll: What rate, innovation?

by Erica Sadun (Mar 29th, 2013)

Over the past year, things seem to have slowed down at Apple. OS upgrades have spaced out. The iPhone seems to have stabilized to a fairly consistent product -- the 4, 4S, and 5 aren't markedly different, other than a small bump in size. OS X has become more a matter of bug fixes, smoothing and ...

TUAW Bookshelf: Mac Hacks

by Erica Sadun (Mar 22nd, 2013)

Mac Hacks ($19.99 e-book, $24.99 print, $27.49 combo) by Chris Seibold is packed with fun and useful OS X-themed tips for anyone looking for non-obvious ways to get more from their Mac. Like Seibold's earlier Big Book of Apple Hacks, Mac Hacks offers ways that technically savvy readers can ...

Mac Hacks: Change your default Notification Center sound

by Erica Sadun (Mar 4th, 2013)

It's bad enough that a billion iOS devices all start chiming at me whenever I receive a notification. The OS X notification center plays that awful sound -- Basso, whenever my reminders trigger. Not sure what that sounds like? Open System Preferences > Sound > Sound Effects and click on ...

The Twitter Client Project: Echofon

by Erica Sadun (Feb 20th, 2013)

I love Echofon. It was among the first apps I bought for iOS, and remains to this day on my devices. When it hopped to OS X, I was delighted and immediately installed a copy. I'm still using it. Only one problem. Naan Studio discontinued it last October. It still works great, however, and ...

Mac 101: Schedule event details in the event title with Calendar

by Matt Tinsley (Feb 12th, 2013)

More Mac 101, tips and tricks for novice Mac users. Let's say you've just got off the phone with a friend. You've arranged to meet later for coffee, but you don't want to forget, so you go to Calendar on your Mac to schedule the event. You double click the date you're going to meet, enter a ...