System preferences Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Mac 101: How to set a default printer

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (Apr 16th, 2009)

Over time you may wind up with several printers set up for your Mac. This results in a list of available printers every time you go to print. If the default (the first one selected) isn't to your liking you can always change it. To do so, bring up System Preferences and go to Print & Fax. Now ...

Apple's System Preference icon goes "Green"

by Cory Bohon (Oct 21st, 2008)

With the introduction of EPEAT Gold rated MacBooks and MacBook Pros last week, Apple has definitely been warming up to the environmental movement lately. So, it was only fitting that they would change a small part of System Preferences to reflect the EPEAT rating. That's right, the Energy Saver ...

NetworkLocation brings WiFi positioning to the Mac

by Michael Rose (Sep 11th, 2008)

Since the introduction of the 1st-gen, GPSless iPhone and the iPod touch, the WiFi location awareness of those devices has been a continuous source of delight to me -- with the underlying technology from Skyhook Wireless, that brave band of cross-country wardrivers, these handhelds manage to know ...

Mac 101: Remove unwanted System Preference panes

by Cory Bohon (Jul 17th, 2008)

Sometimes applications can install extras in the form of System Preference panes. However, when you remove the app from your Mac, you might be left with extraneous System Preference panes. To uninstall System Preference panes, just right-click (or control + click if you have a one button mouse) ...

Mac 101: System Preferences

by Dave Caolo (Jul 3rd, 2008)

This is another entry in our continuing Mac 101 series, aimed at new Mac users. These tips are old hat for veteran Mac users, but will save some people a lot of grief. I know several people who have switched from Windows to the Mac over the past year. While they're happy with their decision, they ...

New screenshots of Snow Leopard appear, show desktop web apps

by Cory Bohon (Jun 21st, 2008)

A German site, Apfeltalk.de has posted screenshots of the forthcoming version of Mac OS X, 10.6 (a.k.a "Snow Leopard"). Most of the screenshots show off the Safari 4 developer preview that will include the "Save as Web Application" option in the File menu. The website also shows off the next ...

TUAW Tip: Use ambient noise reduction for chats and sound recording

by David Chartier (Feb 28th, 2007)

I do a decent amount of audio recording and chatting, but I don't ever remember seeing this option in System Preferences until last night. Turning on the "Use ambient noise reduction" feature under the Input tab of the Sound pane can help cut out the TV or dogs barking in the background, though ...

Afloat - window floating and transparency at the stroke of a key

by David Chartier (Aug 5th, 2006)

Afloat is a killer System Preferences utility that adds a 'float on top' option and customizable transparency settings to virtually any Cocoa app in Mac OS X. Once installed (and you restart any Cocoa apps that were running), new keyboard shortcuts and a couple of options under the Window menu will ...

.Mac syncing UI silliness

by David Chartier (Apr 3rd, 2006)

Today's "what were you thinking, Apple?" is brought to you by the .Mac System Preference pane, iSync and that "Sync Services wants to sync more than X% of your items" popup window. In case you can't figure out the silliness that is the image I've included with this post (and I ...