Spotlight Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Weekend Poll: Retina MacBook Pro

by Erica Sadun (Mar 23rd, 2013)

The MacBook Pro has always represented the best of business computing. With its powerful processors, superb screen sizes, and now Retina display, it's the belle of Apple's showroom. The MBP with Retina display has had a rougher time of things, however, than the standard-issue debutante. ...

Unclutter offers digital pockets for your OS X miscellany

by Erica Sadun (Dec 17th, 2012)

I have really mixed feelings about Unclutter for OS X (US$2.99). On the one hand, it's a pretty cool idea. The app offers a pull-out "drawer" on your desktop that lets you store files, make notes, and view your clipboard. On the other, parts of the app are unintuitive to use and could stand some ...

Concept video shows a better Spotlight for iOS

by Mike Schramm (Sep 17th, 2012)

Designer Cody Sanfilippo put together this concept video of how Spotlight on iOS could work, and it's quite impressive. The current implementation of Spotlight for iOS (accessed by swiping left on your iOS device's homescreen) is fairly useless; while the search is very thorough, the list of ...

Mac 101: Use Spotlight for quick review of Calendar events

by Dave Caolo (Aug 10th, 2012)

Here's a quick way to browse Calendar events (I still want to say "iCal") in the Finder with Spotlight. Simply enter your search keyword into Spotlight. The results are sorted by type, as usual. Move your cursor over a matching Calendar result and a pop-up appears, showing the event's ...

Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me find Spotlight items in the Finder

by Erica Sadun (Oct 30th, 2011)

Dear Aunt TUAW, There's plenty I like about Lion - but lots of pointless change for the worse. Top of my hate list is that Spotlight no longer gives me the location of the items I'm searching for. Sure, the preview on cursor hover is nifty, but why oh why can't Spotlight give me (for example) the ...

Mac 101: Six steps for tracking down hard drive space hogs

by TJ Luoma (Mar 10th, 2011)

More Mac 101, our ongoing series of tips, tricks and helpful hints for new Mac users and curious veterans. "Your startup disk is almost full." This simple sentence can trigger all the stages of grief: denial ("That can't be right!"), anger ("This is a 500 GB drive!"), bargaining ("If I delete ...

Apptivate 2.0 adds keystroke sequence shortcuts

by TJ Luoma (Jan 18th, 2011)

There are a plethora of "launcher" apps out there. I've used LaunchBar ($35) since it was released for NeXTStep; other folks seem fond of Alfred (free, with additional powerpack for £12, or about US$20), Butler ($20), Keyboard Maestro ($36) or Google Quick Search Box (free). The venerable but ...

Rumor: Scrolling, QuickLook and Spotlight updated for 10.7

by Aron Trimble (Oct 19th, 2010)

Apple's next big event is less than 24 hours away and the rumor mill is still running full force. We've already seen a lot of speculation about the upcoming MacBook Air revision. This latest batch of rumors is about some of the interface changes that we might see for Mac OS X 10.7 ...

Mac 101: Keyboard tricks for Finder navigation

by Brett Terpstra (Oct 14th, 2010)

You may know that you can expand and collapse Finder folders in a tree view using the left and right arrow keys. But did you know that you can expand or collapse all of the root-level folders at once? It's a cool trick that can save you a lot of time when navigating your Mac's files. With the Finder ...

TUAW's Daily App: Auditorium

by Mike Schramm (Sep 9th, 2010)

Auditorium is that rare kind of game that's a must-play no matter what kind of gamer you are. It's a puzzle game, a music game, and a piece of art at various times. It's out now on the iPhone courtesy of EA (and the main download is absolutely free), but even if you don't want to take up space on ...

Apple photoshops iPhone into iPod touch

by Mike Schramm (Sep 6th, 2010)

The careful readers at Engadget have noticed that Apple cut a few corners (so to speak) on its website documentation for the latest iPod touch. There's no ear speaker or phone service on the device, obviously, but nevertheless Apple's iPod touch display units show that the Phone app is still ...

Apple spotlights apps ready for iOS 4.0

by Mike Schramm (Jun 26th, 2010)

We already spotlighted a few big apps that have made the jump to iOS 4 (and I'm sure we'll have more coming up soon), but Apple has gone ahead and put a few of its favorites on a page in iTunes for you to browse through as well. There are some excellent games on the list (PopCap didn't waste any ...

Saving your surfing on the Mac

by Brett Terpstra (Mar 15th, 2010)

I'd wager that most of you spend as much of your time on the web as I do, and that it's one of the first places you look for answers to just about any question. As a web designer, I look there for inspiration, solutions and am constantly learning how to improve my design and my code with the help of ...

What's that menu item mean on my Mac?

by Joachim Bean (Feb 11th, 2010)

Ever since you've started using your Mac, you've been looking at those icons towards the top right of your display in your menu bar. These items can direct to many different things, from connecting to a wireless network, to finding items on your Mac. These items not only can be clicked on to show a ...

Clarification on the iPhone Spotlight email issue

by Michael Jones (Aug 18th, 2009)

Earlier today, I posted about the ability to find previously deleted emails using the Spotlight search on the iPhone, adding to the already intense swarm of news surrounding this issue. My findings were that, by ensuring your trash folder was emptied and refreshed, the problem appeared to be solved. ...