Tricks Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

iTunes makes your life better

by Dave Caolo (Apr 9th, 2009)

UsingMac has posted an exhaustive look at iTunes from the perspective of making your working life better. From basic tips like shuffling songs and shuffling movies to more advanced tips like using Terminal to set a half-star rating, it's well thought out. My favorite tip involves browser mode. Many ...

TUAW Tip: Stop Backup.app from bouncing

by Dave Caolo (Feb 19th, 2009)

TJ Luoma recently shared the solution to an annoying problem. Specifically, he wanted to keep Backup's icon from frantically jumping in the Dock like so many hepped-up toddlers in a bouncy castle. The Backup icon typically bounces in the Dock for a minute two before it even begins backing up any ...

Very useful iPhone tips

by Dave Caolo (Dec 10th, 2008)

The blog Tap Tap Tap has posted a wonderful list to 10 iPhone tips and tricks you should know, including taking a screenshot (here's our how-to on that trick), enabling caps lock and customizing the home button's function. Definitely check it out. While we're on the topic, here are a few of our own ...

Your iPhone and salty language

by Dave Caolo (Dec 7th, 2008)

Some of you may have noticed that your iPhone or iPod touch is a bit prudish. Type a salty word and you'll likely be presented with a benign and completely inappropriate alternative (see screenshot at right). The problem (if you want to call it that) isn't that one can't swear, but that ...

Mac 101: Keywords in iPhoto

by Dave Caolo (Sep 19th, 2008)

It's easy to fill your iPhoto library with pictures. However, the task of finding the ones you're after isn't. The Events feature of iPhoto '08 is helpful, and you can improve it with Keywords. Think of keywords as tags. You can assign any keyword(s) to any photo, like "Suzie," "Summer" or "Beach." ...

TUAW Tip: Create an OS X admin user without a disc

by Dave Caolo (Sep 1st, 2008)

Recently, I had to create a new admin user on an older 500mhz Power Mac G4 running OS 10.3.9. Needless to say, there was no 10.3 install discs to be found. What to do? Follow these simple (but powerful) steps. First, restart the Mac while holding down the Command and "S" keys to start in Single-User ...

Extending your iPhone's battery

by Mike Schramm (Jul 23rd, 2008)

IntoMobile has a few good tips on how to extend your iPhone's battery life, and most of them involve the most obvious thing you can do to keep your iPhone running: cut down on any and all extra functions. They actually recommend to turn off 3G, but you don't have to go that far -- just by holding ...

Mac 101: Finder window preferences

by Dave Caolo (Jul 1st, 2008)

As we know, the Finder offers four ways to display your files. Namely icon view, list view, column view, and Cover Flow. Perhaps you prefer one over the others (let's say column view), but your windows open to icon view by default. That can be annoying but here's how to fix it. First, open a new ...

Mac 101: Zoom and pan images in Quick Look

by Dave Caolo (Apr 17th, 2008)

Is your laptop not among those that can do Multi-touch? Don't feel badly, you can replicate those great features! Well, kind of. First, open an image with Quick Look. Next, hold down the Option key while performing a two-finger scroll. The image zooms in and out! Finally, let go of the Option key ...

How to create your own Toast DVD menu style

by Mike Schramm (Feb 23rd, 2008)

A while back reader Michael Coyle was nice enough to send us this write-up on how to customize Leopard's Guest account, and just recently he sent along another guide that you might not need right away, but will come in handy when you really need it. He's got an in-depth look at how to create a ...

iPhone 101: Two Home screen tricks

by Erica Sadun (Jan 23rd, 2008)

Here are two simple but useful tips from TUAW readers David B Alford and Andrew Akker that help you navigate through your iPhone or iPod home screens. David points out that if you tap just to the left or to the right of the dots at the bottom of your screen, you can move a page at a time without ...

Mac 101: Whip your widgets into shape

by Lisa Hoover (Nov 1st, 2007)

Widgets are way too much fun. Though your Mac ships with a few of them already installed on the Dashboard, frankly they're kind of boring. I mean, how much fun is a calculator, clock, or calendar? Did you know there's a bunch more hiding in the far corners of your computer, and even more waiting ...

Mac 101: Three Dock tips

by Lisa Hoover (Sep 19th, 2007)

There's a lot to love about the Mac's user-friendly desktop and one of my favorites is the Dock, otherwise known as "that spot at the bottom of the screen where all the application icons line up." Here are a handful of nifty tricks for the dock that new users might like to know about, and ...

iPhone power tips from Mac | Life

by Mike Schramm (Aug 29th, 2007)

Mac | Life has a huge roundup of "25 iPhone Power Tips"-- just in case you've been living under a rock since late June, here's everything you missed about the iPhone, from how to unstick a stuck slider, to using aluminum foil to insulate an audio cable from the iPhone's signal, to where to go for ...

iPhone kinda supports playing any audio through a bluetooth headset

by David Chartier (Aug 10th, 2007)

As I understand it, there are a lot of new DAPs and music-enabled mobile phones that support A2DP - a technology that allows devices to transmit stereo audio to Bluetooth headphones. It's all the rage with the kids these days, and many fans of cutting cables wherever possible were a bit disappointed ...