How-to Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Eye Trash: Replicating a commercial app in a few easy steps

by Steven Sande (Aug 23rd, 2012)

Long-time Apple developer Circus Ponies recently announced a new application called iTrash ($4.95). The Mac app resolves the "issue" of the moving trash can, a "problem" that occurs when you have your Dock icons set to magnify as you run your mouse pointer over them. My first thought was "well, ...

Mountain Lion 101: Notification Center in a hot corner

by Dave Caolo (Aug 6th, 2012)

Apple's Mountain Lion introduced Notification Center to the Mac. This handy feature lets notification-aware apps display pop-up style alerts when something changes, like an incoming email message, Twitter mention, Calendar appointment and more. Apple notes that you can access Mountain Lion's ...

8 clever iPhone headphone tricks from Tekserve

by Steven Sande (Aug 6th, 2012)

You see them everywhere -- the ubiquitous white iPhone headphones. For many people, they're just a way to listen to your tunes and look cool, but to the Apple Specialists at New York City's Tekserve, the standard Apple headphones a powerful tool for controlling your iPhone. Tekserve's Chris ...

Getting ready for Mountain Lion: checking for compatibility

by Erica Sadun (Jun 12th, 2012)

Does your Mac qualify for Mountain Lion? Not every system does, although if you're already running OS X Lion, chances are good that you'll be able to upgrade. Still, you'll want to check. The following hardware models will support Mountain Lion, according to Apple's specifications page: iMac ...

Using Verizon Personal Hotspot on your new iPad: the basic setup

by Steven Sande (Mar 18th, 2012)

One of the nice features about getting the Verizon edition of the new iPad is that you get the Personal Hotspot feature free with any data plan. Not familiar with the concept of a Personal Hotspot? It's the way to use your iPad as a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot, sharing your 3G or 4G connection with up ...

Preparing your old iPad for sale in five easy steps (Update)

by Steven Sande (Mar 12th, 2012)

It appears from the huge pre-sales of the new iPad that a lot of people are getting the new model. We've also heard from a number of iPad "recyclers" that they're seeing record numbers of people who are selling their original iPad or iPad 2 to trade up to the new model. Since I'm among those who ...

How-to: Beam your photos with iPhoto for iOS

by Steven Sande (Mar 9th, 2012)

One of the quick points touched upon during yesterday's iPad event was that iPhoto for iOS can be used to "beam" photos between iOS devices. While that comment was enough to send our intrepid and beleaguered blogger Dave Caolo into a "Newtongasm" (Apple's groundbreaking PDA was happily beaming ...

Mac 101: Create a guest account

by Kelly Guimont (Nov 22nd, 2011)

"Can I use your computer real quick?" Depending on who asks you this question over the next week, reactions may range from nothing to frantic flailing toward your machine to see if you can make it do something that looks like it is unusable, getting you out of having to relinquish it to a ...

Holiday Gift Guide: Buying an iPad

by Steven Sande (Nov 18th, 2011)

Whether it's a gift for yourself, a friend, or a loved one, buying your first iPad can be cause for some trepidation. After all, there are a number of combinations of three variables -- network type, carrier, and storage on the device -- that add up to puzzlement for some folks. In this Holiday ...

Download Amazon MP3s in Terminal with clamz

by TJ Luoma (Nov 13th, 2011)

If you've ever wanted to download Amazon MP3s via Terminal or over ssh, or ever found yourself unable to use the "Amazon MP3 Downloader.app" then I have good news for you: there is another way. The problem Amazon's MP3 Store annoys me to no end. I love the deals that they occasionally ...

Blogging with your voice: Siri, Blogger, and post-by-SMS

by Erica Sadun (Oct 21st, 2011)

As I mentioned on my earlier post, Steve Sande and I have been hard at work collaborating on "Talking to Siri," an ebook that will soon hit the Kindle store. One of the topics we're exploring is how to push Siri beyond its advertised limits. Take blogging, for example. Did you know that you ...

iPhone 101: Disable Siri with iPhone passcode to prevent unauthorized use

by Steven Sande (Oct 20th, 2011)

Welcome to iPhone 101, the series that explains the basics of iPhone operation. This time, it's making sure Siri doesn't let anyone use your locked iPhone. Almost immediately after the release of the iPhone 4S, TUAW started receiving emails from readers who noticed that even when they had a ...

How to check if you're eligible for an iPhone upgrade

by Steven Sande (Sep 28th, 2011)

With a new iPhone or two just around the corner, TUAW has been getting the usual flood of "how can I check to see if I'm eligible for an upgrade" emails. At least for those of us in the US on either the AT&T or Verizon networks, that's a fairly easy proposition. Here's how to see if you'll ...

Mac 101: Reclaiming space by cleaning out the Downloads folder

by Steven Sande (Sep 22nd, 2011)

To new Mac users, the Downloads folder is quite confusing and even "invisible." As a Mac consultant, you wouldn't believe the number of times I've found multiple copies of downloads, updaters, and pictures in the Downloads folder -- all taking up valuable room on your disk. Reader Joe Delk ...

Mac 101: Upgrade your Mac's RAM

by Chris Rawson (Aug 30th, 2011)

Upgrading your Mac's RAM is one of the simplest and cheapest ways to improve its performance, and it might be more necessary than ever if you're running OS X Lion. While Apple states that the minimum required RAM for Lion is 2 GB, in my experience this is nowhere near enough memory to get ...