TheAppleBlog

This is the third installment of our Dig Into Unix series, an ongoing look into the deep, geeky insides of the core of OS X. In the first part, we got to fire up the Terminal and take a look around the filesystem as the OS sees it, which is slightly different from how the [...]

We’ve posted Power User tips focusing on OS X as a whole (look for an update post for the not-far-off Snow Leopard) and the System Preferences. Today we’ll cast our gaze on iTunes. Listening to music on your Mac is like peanut butter and bananas — they just go together. iTunes is a fairly straightforward [...]

All the goodness of iPhone OS 3.0 aside, the one thing you’ve probably noticed after updating your iPhone or iPod touch is how quickly its battery is draining.
I certainly did, along with many other users. The battery life of my iPhone 3G is now barely six hours, a huge departure from the 12+ hours or [...]

One of the big, new features of the iPhone is its ability to tether. BlackBerrys have had this ability for a while, so below I have outlined how to tether your BlackBerry with your Mac to use your Internet connection to browse the web with your computer.
Some Things to Note

This tutorial is for Leopard.
I have [...]

Having used Microsoft Office for many years, despite my utter distain for them, nobody was happier than me when Apple launched the iWork applications. For my light office application needs, Pages, Keynote and Numbers are just perfect. Here are a few tips I use to make my time in the iWork apps a little easier.

Continuing our Dig Into Unix series, we’ve now covered the absolute basics of launching Terminal.app, moving around the file system, looking at files with cat, and learning about commands with man. Now, I’d like to introduce you to the power of vi.
vi (pronounced vee-eye) is a text editor for the command line, and was originally [...]

I recently switched from an iPhone to a BlackBerry. As I mentioned before, one of my BlackBerry dislikes is that it simply does not sync as nicely as the iPhone. Until recently, I thought I could only drag certain songs onto my BlackBerry and that there was no way to sync playlists. Turns out I [...]

So you’ve got a brand new iPhone 3G S and you want to know if you can use the AT&T tethering workaround everyone’s been talking about? Yes, yes you can. It’s all remarkably easy. It’s almost like Apple wants us to use this workaround — at least that’s the story I’m telling myself.
The good folks [...]

I previously wrote an article on how to stream your data from a Time Capsule and local computer over the Internet. After figuring out the basics of networking, I moved onto wanting to control my media center computer remotely. Below I’ve outlined the steps to set up remotely controlling your home computer over the Internet.
Some [...]

After the honeymoon was over, and I started using the iPhone 3G S in earnest, I began to hear a high-pitched noise on my iPhone-recorded videos. At first I thought it was the environment, background noise, or just plain interference. However, once aware of the noise, I noticed it anytime the phone was recording audio, [...]

I recently switched from my iPhone to a BlackBerry. A few weeks after the transition, I have discovered my likes and dislikes between phones, and by far the most frustrating difference is the “syncing with computer” feature. An iPhone is literally plug and play, whereas a BlackBerry requires tons of configuration, even for the simplest [...]

Despite all the advances in “Cloud Computing” over the last year or two, a large part of most people’s work is still contained in individual files like documents (Word, Pages, PDF), spreadsheets (Excel, Numbers), text files (HTML, text, notes), delimited data files (CSV), presentations (Powerpoint, Keynote), and images (JPEG, GIF, PNG). Finding the right file-sharing [...]

I was recently helping a colleague prepare for a presentation that included a slideshow, but instead of using a PowerPoint presentation, our designer chose to make a PDF of the presentation. Using a PDF over a PowerPoint has a couple of advantages: The font doesn’t need to be installed on the client machine, so you [...]

When Apple revamped its operating system and adopted Nextstep as the base of OS X, they brought along with it an extremely powerful version of Unix based on the open-source project FreeBSD, now known as Darwin.
Unix has a long history, one that started in the basements of Bell Labs by a group of AT&T engineers [...]

There are a few really handy features in OS X that get very little attention – perhaps because they don’t have a snazzy GUI, or maybe it’s because they only appeal to certain users. Whatever the case, Summarize (found in the menubar under the Application menu) is one of those handy features that gets little attention, but delivers big by helping you get to the point.

Intuit, the company that helps manage your money, may owe you some. Heck, even Apple might.
In the winter of 2007, Intuit’s Quickbooks for Mac 2006 contained a fatal bug — an automatic update erased the desktop folders of users’ accounts (yikes). Intuit’s silence on the issue was deafening. Finally, after days of complaining and people [...]

I’ve spent most of my career working in IT Operations, a good part of which I’ve spent thinking, “Really, what’s the worst that could happen?” A year or so ago, I asked myself, “What’s the worst that could happen if my MacBook died?” It was a pretty sobering question.
I work full time. I also freelance, [...]

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’m a simple man. I like a good cup of coffee in the morning, mellow get-togethers with close friends, and technology that simplifies my life…not makes it more complicated. So what’s there to do when your Mac starts to act a bit funky? By “funky,” I [...]

iPhoto is perfectly capable of displaying your photos as a slideshow or one at a time. But you’re limited to a flat display that doesn’t exactly “wow” anyone. With one simple download, you can view your iPhoto collection on a visually stunning 3D wall, right in your Web browser.

Occasionally, every Mac user (from amateur to power user) has issues either installing stubborn applications or removing ones that just refuse to be deleted. Fortunately, there some utilities that every Mac user should keep handy for these instances.