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Archive for the ‘Tips’ Category

Guide to QuickBooks on the Mac

Written on January 27, 2009 by Weldon Dodd and 3 people have commented

QuickBooks is a critical tool for many small businesses, and one of the more frustrating issues for switchers to figure out as they come to the Mac from a Windows PC. While the options for running QuickBooks on the Mac are improving in 2009, there are also good reasons, and good solutions, for running QuickBooks [...]

Gently Used iPod for Sale, Comes Complete With Military Secrets

Written on January 27, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 3 people have commented

It’s a good thing we’re on friendly terms with New Zealand, because one of the residents of that green, hilly island recently acquired 60 pages of sensitive U.S. military data. Total cost of national secrets? $15. Which would’ve been great if that’s what the man who bought it was in the market for, but he [...]

An Avalanche of Snow: 10 iPhone Snow Reporting Apps Compared

Written on January 26, 2009 by Nick Santilli and 8 people have commented

If sliding down mountains of snow is your thing, it’s quite possible that you’re keen on staying up to date with the current and upcoming snow conditions. As with most niches, this space too has been filled for those of us toting an iPhone or iPod touch and there are several free, and a handful [...]

Startup Shortcuts: An App for Misbehaving Macs

Written on January 23, 2009 by Clayton Lai and 4 people have commented

You own an iPhone. You probably own a Mac as well. We all know that there are startup keyboard shortcuts for every troubleshooting procedure a user can follow when his or her Mac misbehaves. Some are easier to remember than others. Some are truly arcane. If you remember only some but not others, developer Eric [...]

Tips and Tricks for Running QuickBooks for Windows In a VM

Written on January 22, 2009 by Weldon Dodd and 5 people have commented

Running QuickBooks for Windows in a virtual machine (VM) on your Mac is often the best way to get all the advanced features of QuickBooks that are only available in the Windows version and still have fun using your Mac the way nature intended, running OS X Leopard. If you choose to go this route, [...]

Running QuickBooks for Windows on Your Mac

Written on January 21, 2009 by Weldon Dodd and 15 people have commented

QuickBooks is one of those key business applications that many people who are considering a switch to the Mac are worried about leaving behind. While QuickBooks 2009 for Mac might be the perfect answer for many, others do not want to give up some of the key features of the Windows version.
Intuit provides a list [...]

Reasons to Stick With QuickBooks for Windows

Written on January 20, 2009 by Weldon Dodd and 2 people have commented

Yesterday, I looked at QuickBooks 2009 for Mac and while the new version is an improvement in many areas, it does not replace the Windows version in all situations. In fact, there are a number of good reasons to continue to use the Windows version of QuickBooks despite your desire to switch completely over to [...]

Five Background Apps for Your MacBook

Written on January 15, 2009 by Lisa Hoover and 14 people have commented

Throughout the course of the workday, I open and close dozens of apps on my MacBook. There are five tools, however, that I keep running continuously in the background on my laptop. They’ve got small enough footprints that I don’t have to worry about using up precious CPU and they’re so handy that they’ve found [...]

Kid Proofing a Mac With Parental Controls

Written on January 13, 2009 by Nick Santilli and 23 people have commented

If you’ve got young children, chances are they’re already quite adept at using the computer. This is a new generation of wired little ones, and we’ve got our work cut out for us as we attempt to stay ahead of them.
I’ll wager that you’re more concerned with protecting your children from the sketchy dangers of [...]

Mitigating a Missing Mobile Safari Security Feature

Written on January 02, 2009 by Bob Rudis and 4 people have commented

In the event you were too distracted by the festivities associated with the ringing in of the new year and missed the news: the internets are broken (again).
To be more specific, what has actually happened is a portion of the trust system that is the foundation of secure transactions on public IP networks has been [...]

Getting the Most Out of Leopard’s Quick Look Feature

Written on January 02, 2009 by Charles Moore and 15 people have commented

I imagine most people using OS 10.5 have become acquainted with Quick Look, which is one of my favorite Leopard features. Quick Look’s basic function, as its name suggests, is as a quick and convenient way to take a peek at what’s in a file without actually opening the file, switching Finder views or opening [...]

Learning to Love Technology: My Wife and the iPhone

Written on December 30, 2008 by Nick Santilli and 23 people have commented

As I think it goes with most geeks, our better half (yes as a matter of fact, some of us have girlfriends and wives!) usually isn’t the most technical of people.
My lovely wife can use a computer just fine, but she’s not the type of person who considers that technology can be leveraged to make [...]

Keep Your World Together With Firefox

Written on December 27, 2008 by Tanner Morrison and 10 people have commented

About seven months ago I made the decision to sell my Macbook and use only my iMac. I love this decision and I don’t regret it, other than one small issue…portability. This isn’t a huge issue but since I do quite a bit of traveling it does cross my mind once in a while.
Traveling [...]

Fixing Poor Laptop Ergonomics

Written on December 26, 2008 by Charles Moore and 9 people have commented

Got a MacBook for Christmas? I’ve used laptop computers almost exclusively for a dozen years now, and they’ve been great, but for day in, day out, workhorse duty the standard laptop configuration does have serious ergonomic deficiencies.
If you position the computer high enough for comfortable and ergonomically healthy viewing angle to the screen, your wrists [...]

Mac 101: Photo Booth Tips

Written on December 24, 2008 by Nick Santilli and 15 people have commented

When’s the last time you played with Photo Booth? I’m guessing you and your friends had some raucous laughs with it when you first got your Mac, and then haven’t done much with it since. Well I’m here to suggest you bring it out of mothballs and check out a few things that you may [...]

iTunes Tip: Remembering to Rate Your iTunes Music

Written on December 22, 2008 by Nick Santilli and 11 people have commented

My life is busy (and yes, if you’re wondering, it is all about me), and frequently I tend to rip or download music without taking the time to apply ratings to it. Since ratings are one of the best methods for determining the usefulness of your playlists, neglecting to add that information to your tracks [...]

DIY Magi: Great (and Free!) Gift Pack for New Mac Owners

Written on December 22, 2008 by Bob Rudis and 2 people have commented

With both shopping days and budgets running short, you may be wondering what to get your friends and family members who have either just purchased or will be receiving a new Mac.
With 1-8GB USB flash drives having a street price of ~$6-$15.00 and a plethora of highly useful free software for the Mac ripe for [...]

Tales From the Command Line: textutil

Written on December 18, 2008 by Bob Rudis and 8 people have commented

I really enjoy the overall experience reading books and articles on my Sony PRS-500 eBook reader, but dislike having to fire up Boot Camp or VMware into Windows in order to purchase books from the Sony eBook Store, especially when there are thousands of books in the public domain and tons of blog and article [...]

Optimize iPhone Photo Retrieval With Apple’s Image Capture Utility

Written on December 11, 2008 by Bob Rudis and 2 people have commented

Despite the iPhone having a less-than-stellar camera, I wind up taking more pictures with it than any other device we own. This becomes a painful reality every time I connect my phone up to my MacBook Pro since I am reminded that I have enabled the launching of iPhoto whenever there are new pictures to [...]

6 Ways to Trick Out Your Mac This Holiday Season

Written on December 10, 2008 by Lisa Hoover and 2 people have commented

As you do your holiday decorating this year, don’t forget to trick out your Mac, too. Fortunately, it’s a lot easier than hauling out heavy decorations or hanging 40 miles of outdoor lights in sub-zero temperatures.
I am always amazed at the creative widgets people devise and create for the holidays, and this year is no [...]