Archives for August 2012

Uh oh.The verdict in the Apple v. Samsung trial was crystal clear. Samsung was identified as a thief and could face huge penalties and heavy fallout for their crimes. Samsung's stock dropped billions. Samsung phones are being ditched by customers on eBay in record numbers. Samsung may pay a hefty,... Read More »

My phone has about a dozen different custom ringtones which are associated to different callers. When one song plays, I know who the caller is by the ringtone. How do you create custom ringtones on your Mac. Free Ringtone Maker.Other than using the built-in ringtones, I don't know of an easier, faster... Read More »

Don't let anyone tell you that Garageband is not a professional level, multitrack audio recording app. It is. And it's free with every Mac. Garageband has limits, of course, but is an excellent tool to get started with quality recording. And, yes, there are many recording apps with even higher quality... Read More »

What is it they say? The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away. The lords that run Apple shocked Mac users last year by removing access to a highly used function. Gone in Mac OS X Lion was the user Library folder. It was still there, but Apple decided it needed to be hidden from Mac users.Likewise,... Read More »

I've been using a Mac to record and mix audio since the last century. If there's one complaint I have, it's the low volume level (especially on Mac notebooks). It's just not loud enough. Despite my advanced age, my hearing is very good, but I prefer some volume to my sound so I can feel as well as hear... Read More »

When it comes to Mac apps that manage, tweak, or process digital photos, there are few that I haven't tried. Some of these apps have been around on my Mac for a decade or more. Three that I use regularly come in the Easy package, and combined they make short work of cropping photos, adding frames to... Read More »

Today's point and shoot digital cameras do one thing very well. Quick and easy photos. Good color. Fine definition. Autofocus. So why do I have a few thousand photos in my iPhoto collection that are not quite in focus?Modern digital photography remains a you get what you pay for proposition. My less... Read More »

What's the selection process you use to add new apps to your Mac? As strange as it may seem, I start with a mix of colorful, well-designed logo, and a need that gets filled. It's the eye candy logo which gets me started.If the developer is willing to put time and effort into an appropriate logo,... Read More »

How hard can it be to delete files from your Mac? Grab the file, drag it to the Trash, click Empty Trash (right-click, or select from the Finder menu). That's a time honored way for Mac users to get rid of files.OS X also gives you an option to securely delete files (it's in the Finder menu; select... Read More »

One thing about modern computing that has always surprised me is how many Mac users listen to iTunes while they're working on their Macs. If it's not sound emanating from the Mac as they type on some research paper, or work on a spreadsheet, or catch up on email, it's music through ear buds connected... Read More »

I'm convinced that Apple sometimes doesn't add as many functions to Mac OS X as they do because they want the third party Mac app developer community to step up and be creative. Of course, when those developers do too good a job with a useful, creative app, Apple often steals it.OS X isn't much on... Read More »

Apple removed one of my favorite features from iMovie a few generations ago. The ability to grab a static frame from a video clip. That's gone and there's not an easy way to pull static images from a video file.That reminds me of another technology I thought was mostly dead. Animated GIF images.GIF... Read More »

One surprise package that came with Safari 6 for Lion and Mountain Lion was the loss of the built-in RSS reader. While many Safari RSS users were miffed at Apple for their loss, I wasn't worried much because I use a one-two punch. Safari Reader, and a dedicated, standalone RSS reader for subscriptions.Safari... Read More »

There once was a time when Mac backup apps were rare and difficult to setup and use. One of my first backup apps, from back in the day when the whole process of backing up was tedious, was a Mac preference pane app called Déjà Vu.To quote former Yankee catcher Yogi Berra, it's Déjà Vu all over... Read More »