Tips

Snow Leopard: Enabling the root user

By default, the root user is not enabled in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Enabling it takes a simple procedure by way of the Directory Utility application or via Terminal. In Mac OS X 10.5, Directory Utility was located in the Applications > Utilities folder. In Snow Leopard, this is no longer the case. You can now find Directory Utility in System > Library > CoreServices.… Read more

Options for writing to NTFS formatted drives in Mac OS X

When it comes to full read and write support for windows drives, OS X can only do so on FAT32-formatted partitions. The newer and popular NTFS format is a more stable option for Bootcamp and other applications; however, it is only readable by OS X. One of Apple's selling points for OS X is the enhanced Windows compatibility, but the lack of write ability to NTFS drives makes transferring files between the Mac OS and Bootcamp rather cumbersome. Luckily, third-party utilities enable this missing feature.… Read more

iPhone MMS send failure fix

I woke up last Friday morning, just like everyone else, looking forward to finally getting MMS on my iPhone 3GS. However, for some of us, the excitement turned into dismay when the MMS update didn't work.

Users were discussing the issue under the topic MMS message send failure on Apple support forums. I was experiencing the problem and initially I could not fix it--even after spending more than 2 hours on the phone with Apple and AT&T. Today I decided to take a new approach and I found an ironically simple fix for this problem that we … Read more

Tip: set the Terminal to store only unique commands in the history

When you enter commands in the Terminal, they are saved in a history that you can scroll through by pressing the up and down arrows. This is convenient because you can quickly access previously entered commands for repetitive tasks, or to access previously used syntax for a command. While this is useful, if you have entered the same command several times you will have to scroll through the same command in the terminal in order to get to a unique command you entered. This default behavior can be changed, which may be convenient for people who access the terminal frequently.… Read more

Jailbreak: Cydia developer Jay Freemam live chat

The live chat is available here. The chat has ended and they're no longer taking questions, but you can read the transcript on the site. For the more technical individuals out there, there's a lot of interesting information about how he's thwarting Apple's best efforts and empowering users to take control of their devices.

A quick note on AppleWorks support in Snow Leopard

While AppleWorks brought much needed day-to-day productivity to early versions of OS X, Apple ended support for it in 2007 with the debut of Pages and the iWork suite. Despite this, a number of people still rely on or use AppleWorks, and periodically ask about the support options for AppleWorks and AppleWorks documents in recent versions of the Mac OS.… Read more

MacFixIt International: Keyboard localizations

For our International readers (and US-based readers traveling or living abroad) it may be handy to know the lay of the keyboard landscapes when using Macs in other countries. Apple has released this knowledge base article to help out.… Read more

Tip: Change the grid background color in iTunes 9

Many people use and like the grid view in iTunes, where albums are shown in a grid layout and can be played individually instead of having the songs of all albums in one big list. Unfortunately Apple does not provide a way to customize the background in the grid view, and in the latest version of iTunes people are forced to use the new white backdrop to their albums. This has not been a welcomed change by some people, who wish to still use the darker background.… Read more

AT&T customers, check your plan once in a while

I've been a customer of AT&T ever since 2003, when I got myself my first cell phone ever, and I've been a very good one. The proof: I set my bill to autopay from day one and even convinced a few friends to move to AT&T (mostly so that we don't have to use the minutes to talk to each other.)

I found out Thursday that AT&T hasn't been very nice to me. … Read more