Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Apple/Mac”
Have you ever needed (or wanted) to create a spoken word audio file on your Mac? You can use the Mac’s “Say” command via Terminal to create an audio file with your text. Example of Terminals Ability to Speak Text Open Terminal (Applications / Utilities / Terminal.app) Type (or Copy) …
Have you ever wanted or needed to pull (extract) audio from a YouTube video? The other day I had a requirement to do so; I thought I would share the simple process. I’m a big fan of the Command Line Interface (CLI); so I will first show you how via …
If you want to stop Apple from nagging you into upgrading your Mac to macOS Catalina you can hide the notice with a few simple commands. Prevent the Catalina Banner From Appearing Open the Terminal app (Applications/Utilities) Type or Copy the below into Terminal sudo /usr/sbin/softwareupdate –ignore “macOS Catalina” Enter …
The SafairSort website has been discontinued and now redirects to this blog site. If you wish to change the URL that opens after running SafariSort please follow the steps below: Open your Applications Folder Right-Click (or Control-Click) on the SafariSort.app and Choose “Show Package Contents” Open the “Contents” Folder Open …
I love ImageMagick! ImageMagick makes common image manipulation simple and fast without the need to use an image program like Photoshop etc. As a web developer I often need to create favorite icons along with apple-touch-icons. The following example will demonstrate how to convert your image into the appropriate formats …
I find it a bit annoying when data mindful guests constantly ask me for my wi-fi password while attending events at my house. Yes, I could simply share (verbally or electrically) the password but sometimes when your across the room working in the kitchen etc you can’t always immediately assist. …
I was working on an older Mac the other day and needed to create a Windows 10 Recovery Disc via an ISO. Since I was using an older Mac with OS X 10.11 there was no option to simply burn the ISO from Disk Utility as I would normally do. …
The Apple Photos application leaves a lot to be desired. Its simplistic approach is often counter productive to advanced users. Something that drives me nuts is the inability to import a folder full of images directly into Photos while maintaining the folder name as a an album in Photos. I …
I often create thumbnails for images to be posted on various webpages. Instead of using Photoshop or some other image editor I wrote a simple Automator workflow to convert an image to a nice little thumbnail with ImageMagic. Note: I prefer my thumbnails to be 150×100 pixels. You can adjust …
I have a website where I always upload image files with a standard image size, quality level and unsharp. Instead of loading Photoshop or another image editor I wrote a simple Automator workflow to convert the file with my specified parameters using ImageMagic. Requirements: Automator, ImageMagic Workflow Breakdown Ask for …
Homebrew recommends being installed in /usr/local/; This is not always possible for systems that are managed in corporate environments where permissions will restrict user ownership of Homebrew. If a user doesn’t own Homebrew they will not be able to add packages or update. The following is a super simple way …
I put together a quick video on how to install and use my SafariSort application. Hope it helps anyone who is unfamiliar with installing non-Apple App store apps.
It’s easy to block incoming connections on a Mac with the builtin firewall. Blocking outgoing connections to websites from your browsers or applications is a little more difficult. You could use an app like LittleSnitch but that is honestly overkill. If you are comfortable with using Terminal then you can …
Apple’s Photos app sucks Okay it isn’t that bad but it has some really annoying usability problems that drive me bonkers. I personally keep all my photos in folders named by event and contained by years. I do NOT have Photos set to import my pictures into its own Library. …
Preview is an amazing tool! I would say I probably use Preview at least twenty times a day. Today I learned that Preview can even create Windows Icon files (and Mac icons of course). Amazing; simply amazing. Once you have an image that you would like to convert to an …
It’s very annoying that Oracle doesn’t supply its Java JRE installer in the PKG format that is utilized by Apples Remote Desktop for administrators. You can easily get around this however by following the below steps. Download the latest Java JRE update from Oracle. Open the DMG file. Right-Click (Control-Click) …
The Photos app is nice but it can be a real system hog when it first starts up (especially on an older Mac). Every time you connect an iPhone, iPad or other photo containing devices the Photos app automatically starts. You can prevent the app from opening with the following …
Yes – I’m still a very satisfied iOS jailbreaker… I used the Pangu Jailbreak Tool which is available for Mac and Windows as long as you are running iOS 9.0.2 or below. If you already updated past iOS 9.0.2 you will have to wait for future Jailbreak tools. It’s been …
NOTE: As of July 2016 Netflix has REMOVED this option! Yes- Yes you can manage your Netflix DVD queue on an iPhone. Netflix is trying very hard to kill physical media but obviously thats a deal breaker for folks like me who still subscribe to the DVD/Blue-Ray delivery service. So …
I use RSS feeds frequently for my work. Some companies and organizations have turned to their Facebook Pages for posting current news and have abandoned traditional RSS. I have found a nice way to create RSS feeds for those Facebook Pages so I don’t have to be on Facebook all day …
If you are trying to decide which iPhone 6 to purchase this very hand paper template will give you an idea of how much larger the new phones will be as compared to the current iPhone 5s. Simply print out the PDF and put your current phone on top to …
I’ve been playing with jailbreaking apps and tweaks on my iPhone and iPad for over six months now. At this point I have no plans on going back to the out of the box iOS setup. This past weekend I used the recently released Pangu jailbreak tool to update my devices …
At some point in time I changed the default duration time of new iCal events to two hours vs the standard (60 minutes). I have been booking more frequent and shorter meetings lately so I wanted to change my default event times to 15 minutes. Since I couldn’t remember how …
I generally don’t use iPhoto a lot on my system. I have a several thousand photos; they are well organized with tags and smart groups. I really only use iPhoto to import my new pictures. Something that frustrates the hell out when I do occasionally use iPhoto is the Faces …
I decided to Jailbreak my iPhone about a month ago when the evasi0n7 tool by evad3rs was released for iOS7. I honestly didn’t think I would find jailbreaking particularly useful. I was wrong; I’m glad I jumped down the rabbit hole. Why jailbreak? Why not! If you take a few …
