Mac Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Share between devices painlessly with Instashare

by Shawn "Doc" Boyd (May 18th, 2013)

There will come a time when you would like to simply transfer a file from one iOS device to another or to a Mac; it's inevitable. When the time arises, you will discover as most of us already have that the process is not as straightforward as one would think, considering how powerful these devices ...

Daily Update for May 17, 2013

by Steven Sande (May 17th, 2013)

It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player ...

MacBook Air supply dwindling as WWDC approaches

by Mel Martin (May 17th, 2013)

It's clearly not the best time to be looking for a MacBook Air -- 13-inch versions are in especially short supply. The reason for the shortage will be obvious to those who follow Apple closely: it's almost time for the Apple World Wide Developer Conference starting June 10, and Apple is likely ...

Your Mac's connection to Harry Potter

by Steven Sande (May 17th, 2013)

The next time you wish to hack into a Mac, it may help to grab your wand and book of spells. At the NoSuchCon security conference this week, security architect Alex Ionescu presented a talk where he revealed that special undocumented code on a Mac's SMC (system management controller) can be ...

Tim Cook talks about US-made Mac with Politico

by Kelly Hodgkins (May 17th, 2013)

Last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple was bringing production of an existing Mac line to the US. Cook shared some additional details on the project in an interview with Politco that was published yesterday. Besides being assembled in the US, many of the components will be produced in ...

Productivity Tip: When and how to use paper vs software

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (May 14th, 2013)

One of the problems with giving people advice is that certain topics are so... personal. Our previous experiences, current technology and outside pressures inevitably corral us into a particular line of thinking or acting. So it is with the debate over paper vs. software solutions. Personally, ...

Former Google, Apple employees working on educational robots

by John-Michael Bond (May 14th, 2013)

Sure, kids can play with an iPad to learn how to program, but what about robots? Play-i is a startup company seeking to develop affordable (under US$100), programmable robots as an educational tool for children. Normally this would sound like the plot of a bad '90s sci-fi movie of the week, ...

Pixelmator and Acorn: economic, practical image editors

by Erica Sadun (May 14th, 2013)

Last week, after Adobe announced its move to a subscription-based cloud plan, our own Kelly Hodgkins asked me to look at software alternatives for some Creative Suite apps. We know that none of these apps provide a full replacement for Photoshop or Illustrator. What she asked me to do was to ...

Mac 101: Upgrade to SSD

by Shawn "Doc" Boyd (May 14th, 2013)

If you are looking for a way to get more out of your MacBook or MacBook Pro, consider a solid-state drive (SSD). SSDs offer faster data read and write speeds, fast file transfers, speedier boot times and will save you some battery life. In the past, SSDs were considered somewhat pricey upgrades ...

Caturday (late): Max and his Magic Trackpad

by Steven Sande (May 12th, 2013)

You thought you were going to get through another weekend without that TUAW classic Caturday? Well, you're wrong. Today's feline geek is Max, a six-month-old Singapura who loves to help his human, Sumner Paine, work on his 27" iMac. According to Sumner, "He helps me type on the keyboard, he ...

Kensington USB 3.0 Multi-Display Adapter adds video options to your Mac (giveaway!)

by Steven Sande (May 11th, 2013)

Have a need to attach more monitors to your USB 3.0-equipped Mac, but don't want to use a Thunderbolt, Mini DisplayPort, or HDMI port? Kensington may have just the thing for you -- the Universal Multi-Display Adapter (US$79.99 MSRP), AKA the USB 3.0 Multi-Display Adapter. We previewed this ...

Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 Update 14.3.4

by Steven Sande (May 10th, 2013)

In case you haven't launched Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 in the past few days, there's an update for the office suite that became available on May 7. The 14.3.4 update of Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 is considered to be a "critical" update, and includes a number of fixes. Most of the fixes ...

Apple issues stability fix firmware update v1.2 for Thunderbolt

by Steven Sande (May 10th, 2013)

Have a Mac equipped with Thunderbolt? Then head on over to your friendly neighborhood Mac App Store this morning, click on Updates and get yourself a nice firmware update. Firmware update v1.2 for Thunderbolt "provides stability fixes for Thunderbolt and Target Disk Mode" and requires a machine ...

Pixelmator 2.2 available with over 100 new features and improvements

by John-Michael Bond (May 9th, 2013)

Popular image-editing app Pixelmator has released version 2.2, which brings a slew of new features to the already powerful program. The update comes with an expanded collection of shapes, tools to manipulate them, enhanced gradient palettes and a new paint selection tool among the more than 100 ...

Sony waives its publishing fee; Would Apple ever do the same?

by Mike Schramm (May 8th, 2013)

Video-game maker Sony has been making a big push for independent developers lately, both on its handheld PS Vita system and on its upcoming PlayStation 4 console, and yesterday, the company took another big step. Sony has decided to waive its usual US$99 fee for PlayStation Mobile developers, ...