How to Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

How to: Listen to your Amazon Cloud Player music on your iOS device

by Erica Sadun (Mar 30th, 2011)

[H/t to Mashable's Christina Warren, who wrote this up yesterday. We independently arrived at the same place and had not seen Christina's writeup. - Ed.] Have you signed up for Amazon Cloud? It's a newly launched service that offers 5 GB of free online cloud storage and affordable paid plans up ...

Use TextExpander and Twitterrific to avoid Twitter spam

by TJ Luoma (Mar 21st, 2011)

If you post to Twitter and say the word "iPhone" or "iPad," you are likely to get hit with one of the rash of Twitter spammers who search through Twitter for people who post about those terms and @reply to them with some "deal" (usually offering you a chance to "win" a "free" iPad or ...

Video: Replicate Smart Cover sleep mode with a simple magnet

by Erica Sadun (Mar 14th, 2011)

If you're looking for that awesome Smart Cover functionality but don't want to spend forty bucks on a case for your new iPad, it's really simple to add a low-power magnet that will trigger the Smart Cover functionality. All you need is a small strip of flexible craft magnet, available at any ...

Use AppleScript to open current Safari URL in Google Chrome

by TJ Luoma (Mar 14th, 2011)

I've been using John Gruber's suggestions from Going Flash-Free on Mac OS X, and How to Cheat When You Need It to avoid installing Adobe Flash by using Google Chrome (which includes its own version of Flash) whenever I run into a page that has Flash I want to see. To make this easier, John ...

How to transfer files between Macs

by Steven Sande (Mar 9th, 2011)

When two or more Macs are gathered in the name of Steve Jobs, there's a good chance that someone is going to want to transfer files between those computers. Macworld's Kirk McElhearn, who also hangs out at TidBITS.com and is a fellow Take Control Ebooks author, has written an excellent ...

Making custom alert sounds for your Mac

by Chris Ward (Mar 7th, 2011)

When you're fed up with your Mac telling you it's not about to open the pod bay doors and wondering if, Dave, you really want to do that, you may want to think about making some custom sounds for it yourself. And as luck would have it, there's a great tutorial on how to do just that over at ...

Verizon iPhone 101: What new owners need to know to get started

by Erica Sadun (Feb 7th, 2011)

You hung in there. For four long years, you hung in there. And now, finally, you've made it to the promised land. For many of you, an iPhone is even now arriving on a FedEx truck. Soon, you'll be able to set up your new baby and start entering the strange and wonderful world of Verizon iPhone use. ...

Mac App Store reporting "Error 100"? Here's what to do

by Richard Gaywood (Jan 6th, 2011)

Many users, including a few of us here at TUAW Towers, have had the release of the Mac App Store this morning blighted by the message We could not complete your App Store request. An unknown error occurred (100). The fix for this seems to be simple. The release of the Mac App Store has provoked yet ...

Got an Apple TV for Christmas? Here's how to set it up

by Steven Sande (Dec 25th, 2010)

Did you find a new Apple TV under the tree or in your Christmas stocking this morning? If you did, you're probably anxious to get it set up and running just as soon as you're done drinking more eggnog and eating those waffles. This is the perfect time to check out some instructions from us on how to ...

Mac 101: Import Windows Media Audio files into iTunes

by Sam Abuelsamid (Dec 7th, 2010)

One of the biggest concerns for computer users making their first tentative steps in the Apple ecosystem is file format support for all the data they've collected over the years, especially media files. Users coming over from Windows that haven't been using iTunes and iPods often have a mountain ...

Teaching your Apple TV to use a 3rd party remote

by Michael Gray (Nov 24th, 2010)

Usually, if you're trying to get a new remote to work with home electronics, you teach the remote to work with your electronic device. You look up the name and brand of your electronic in the remote's manual, plug in the super secret code, and hope it works. It's especially painful if your ...

Mac 101: Open new tabs to reveal browsing history in Safari

by TJ Luoma (Sep 26th, 2010)

Safari's Top Sites feature is nifty and all, but what I've really wanted to do is have new Safari tabs open showing me my recent browsing history. I couldn't figure out a way to do this until just now. Maybe if you're an experienced Safari user this is obvious, but I'm still a fairly recent Safari ...

How to replace iTunes 10's grey with eye-popping black

by Dave Caolo (Sep 18th, 2010)

Several iTunes 10 users were less than thrilled with the new all-grey UI theme. I've gotten used to it, but I agree it was a bit prettier with the color icons in the sidebar. Here's how you can replace the grey entirely with an eye-popping, high-contrast black and white. First, quit iTunes. Then ...

iTunes 101: Share your Ping profile

by Dave Caolo (Sep 4th, 2010)

Here's a tip about something that had me confused for a while, I hate to admit. After setting up Ping in iTunes 10 and getting my profile just so, I naturally wanted to tell the eager masses where to find me. After all, many of the folks I follow on Twitter were sharing URLs to their accounts. But ...

iTunes 101: How to set up Ping

by Dave Caolo (Sep 2nd, 2010)

Apple has jumped into the social media pool with both feet by introducing Ping to iTunes 10. Since this is brand-new, we'll show you how to set it up and start pinging your friends. Whatever that means. After installing iTunes 10, you'll see the Ping button. Click it to enter your Apple ID and ...