How-To - page 101

Software can be a cantankerous thing. Sometimes programs won’t launch when you need them, and other times they won’t go away when you’re done! One reader is having a problem with iTunes refusing to quit when asked:

I have some questions related to 10.5 iTunes. When I quit iTunes it goes about the process normally and then starts back up. iTunes is using 80-100% CPU usage when running. Could this be related to a third-party plug-in? Very frustrating and have to force restart my mini as iTunes cancels the shutdown process.

Thanks, Tim

If you liked that tip earlier today about adding track information to your iTunes dock icon, here’s another great tip for you: it’s easy to replace the boring old iTunes icon in the dock with the album art for whatever track is playing. Here’s how.

There are a lot of great apps out there that will alert you to what track is currently playing in iTunes by flashing a notice on your Mac’s desktop; Coversutra and Growltunes, to name just two. But did you know that iTunes has a secret option to display track information on your desktop every time the track changes? It’s true. It’s attractive. And it’s just a terminal command away.

With security becoming an ever more serious issue, keeping your files safe is more important than ever before. Using an encrypted disk image is an easy way to safely store away files, while keeping them in one consolidated location. In this video, I’ll show you how to set up encrypted disk images.

So you’ve upgraded to the latest and greatest, and it’s time to give your old Mac to a new owner. But how do you get rid of all your old data and software before making the handoff?

I just pulled the trigger on ordering a new iMac, a nice new 21.5″ i7 quad-core. Needless to say, I can’t wait, even though it will be my first venture with OS X Lion. I get doing a full backup from my current iMac on my Time Capsule to load up my new iMac when it arrives, but I am wondering what to do with old Mac computers to make it clean and ready to gift to the Grandkids’ family.

Apple’s new music service, iTunes Match, launched today as a beta, and it includes the handy ability to upgrade your low quality audio tracks to lossless audio tracks and then mirror them in the cloud. In this video, I’ll show how to set up iTunes match and upgrade your songs. It just couldn’t be easier.

Apple likes to make things as easy as possible to join WiFi networks, especially when the network isn’t password protected. However in one reader’s case this isn’t a good thing but rather a major headache:

Is there a way to RESTRICT joining certain wifi networks to certain OS X user accounts?
When using my MacBook Pro, I have two basic OS X logins. One for known SECURE wifi networks, and one for INSECURE wifi networks. The problem is that Airport settings always remember the INSECURE network, and almost always tries to connect my SECURE OSX login to the INSECURE wifi, at which point Mail (or other apps) start up and shoot my logs/passes across the air for all to see.

Since the announcement of Siri with the iPhone 4S, countless OS X users have been wondering if Siri will eventually makes it’s way to the Mac. Well, you may not know it, but OS X actually includes a Speech Recognition system called Speakable Items, which is very similar to Siri in many ways. In this video, I’ll show you how to set it up, as well as how to tweak Speakable Items to your liking.

A lot of people don’t have access to unlimited 3G data plans, so they need to keep an eye out on the amount of data they use every month. There are different tasks and apps that will use data on an iPhone or iPad, and it can be hard to keep track of them all. Luckily, Apple has thought of a few ways you can limit access to 3G data by forcing apps to use Wi-Fi instead when it is available.

iCal’s Reminders feature is a handy way to keep track of our To Do lists, but sometimes you get pestered more than desired. Here’s one way to quiet things down when your iDevices have nagged you sufficiently:

I love the new Reminders app for iOS, and it ties in beautifully with my use on my iPad and iPhone. However, I hate sitting down at the end of the day and having to click through all my day’s reminders on my computer through iCal. In the iCloud settings, I can only disable iCal, but I don’t want to disable my calendars, just the reminders part of it. Is there a way I can disable iCal reminder notifications on my Mac without disabling the calendar syncing? – Benjamen

The iPhone is an incredible, world-changing device… but it’s never been cheap to own one. That’s just as true with the iPhone 4S as it has been with any other iPhone, which means every saved penny counts.

Figuring out which carrier to go with when you sign up for an iPhone 4S requires considering many different factors. For the best bang for the buck, though, Sprint is the way to go: their $79.99 Everything Data plan includes 450 minutes per month, free nights and weekends, as well as unlimited data and text.

Think that’s a pretty good deal? That’s nothing. Follow this guide and we can not only help you save up to $240 dollars on your Sprint iPhone 4S contract over the course of two years, we can even help you get more minutes for less money!

Interested? Read on.

I had previously written the following short article in response to a reader’s question about their MagSafe power adapter. Although the recent class action settlement has seemingly resolved this particular issue, some readers might find it helpful to look at this article as a case study, which may offer some points relevant to other product defects.

“Hi Cult of Mac,

About four months ago I purchased a used 2007 MacBook Pro online from a seller on eBay. Two weeks ago I noticed the charger was discolored and looked like it had started to melt! I can now see the wires inside the cable near the base of where it connects to my MacBook Pro. I don’t think I caused any damage to the cable. I never purchased AppleCare. What should I do?”

So iCloud is finally here, and MobileMe is going away. This is generally a good thing, but vestiges of the old remain with the new. One reader is wondering how he can make a clean break:

I’ve successfully upgraded to Lion, to iOS 5 on my iPhone 4, and migrated from MobileMe to iCloud. BUT, I still see the MobileMe icon in my system preferences, how do I remove it?

Mark

Noticing that people really liked to wrap the new iPod nanos around a wrist band and turn them into watches, Apple decided to embrace the Nanowatch movement with their latest update, specifically by rolling out a number of fun new watch faces. The most iconic of the new options, though, is the one that mimics the classic Mickey Mouse watch face, famous with Mouseketeers all around the world since the 1950s.

If you don’t have an iPod nano, there’s a cool, easy way to get yourself the nano’s Mickey Mouse watch face on your Dashboard. Here’s how.

There’s an easter egg in iOS 5: a new panorama mode that lets you stitch together multiple shots you take with your iPhone’s camera into a gorgeous 180+ degree image. Unfortunately, while Apple clearly spent some time putting this together, there’s no way to access it as a consumer unless you jailbreak your iPhone. Here’s how to get Apple’s panorama mode working on your iPhone 4, iPhone 4S or iPad 2.

Longtime Mac users often have pictures scattered across several different machines in multiple iPhoto libraries. Sometimes it’s nice to merge everything together when upgrading to a new machine:

I saw your MacRx article on Consolidating Your iPhoto Library and Removing Duplicates. How would you recommend I consolidate several different libraries? I have my first iPhoto library on my vintage Mac Mini. I have a 2nd iPhoto library on a laptop. My third library is on my new iMac. I want everything on the new iMac. What is the best way to attack this? – Deb

OS X Lion’s Finder is noticeably more drab than its predecessor. The once-colorful sidebar icons have now turned a rather flat shade of gray. In this video, I’ll show you how to restore color to your Finder sidebar icons.

Apple’s Migration Assistant is a handy utility for moving data between old and new Macs, but sometimes you can get duplicates of existing applications. Here’s one way to avoid the issue:

I’ve transferred over my user account from old to new mac. I’m just about to transfer a second user account from another mac to this same new mac. The new Mac has all the applications from the first transfer in the System level Applications folder.

The second user account that I’m about to transfer also has apps in the System Level Application folder. I was wondering what would happen, would they replace the existing apps on the new Mac when I transfer the second user account using Migration Assistant? – Phillip

On a Mac everything is supposed to “just work”, and usually it does. However, sometimes a missing internet plug-in or other component may be required for correct operation:

I have been a Mac user since the first home/small Mac computers were available. My recent eMac was 9 years old, so I was out of sync with EVERYTHING. Just bought a new iMac and I have Safari. Sometimes I click on a document on the Internet, and I get a basically blank page that says “Missing plug-in.” So I can’t open everything I need.

For users who work with both Macs and PCs, having a flash drive that can work between both and seamlessly transport files can be critical. The tricky part is choosing the filesystem that provides the best interoperability between both computers. In this video, I’ll show how to format a flash drive for both Macs and PCs the right way.

Upgrading a Mac running OS X Lion to the Server version is a simple process of downloading and running the Server installer app, but reverting to the non-server version is not as straightforward:

I’m using Mac OS X Server Lion 10.7.2 (11C74), I wanna change it to normal OS X 10.7.2 (not server). How do I do that?  -Ahmad

A handy way to link up with friends? You bet. Evil? Quite possibly. Lame? That’s what a friend of mine thought. Find My Friends, Apple’s newest app, is a new location tool that can be used to great effect — or become one huge, scary headache.

Here’s an FAQ with all you need to know about navigating safely through the app.

Your Mac’s home directory, or home folder, is represented by a little house in the Finder and is the default location for your documents, music, photos and other items on your computer. The name of the home folder is also your Mac account username, or “shortname” in UNIX parlance.

Since these items are related, the process for renaming the home folder and changing your username is similar to moving your home folder to another location such as a second hard drive. Here’s how it’s done.

Apple operates under the philosophy that the latest and greatest OS is what everybody should use, but many of us prefer to try things out first and upgrade a bit more slowly. When you dual-boot your Mac among two different versions of Mac OS X some things will work fine, while others require one system or the other:

I’m running Snow Leopard 10.6.8 on a MacBook Pro 3,1 and I just got a new 750GB, 7200rpm drive to put in. Can I create say a 100GB OS X 10.7 Lion partition and share the apps / data from the 10.6.8 partition?

One of iOS 5’s hidden gems is the ability to create custom keyboard shortcuts, a feature that works like TextExpander on the Mac. In this video, I’ll show you how to create and manage keyboard shortcuts from any iOS 5 device.