Mac

Stay up-to-date on the latest Mac news, and tutorials. Get expert tips and tricks to optimize your Mac’s performance and learn about the latest Apple products and software updates. Discover the best Mac apps and accessories to enhance your user experience.

Fantastical for Mac gains native Exchange support, printing, iCloud shared calendar alerts & more

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 30, 2016

After shipping Fantastical 2 for Mac a year ago with tons of new features and a revamped user interface for OS X Yosemite and later, developer Flexibits today pushed version 2.2 of its calendar, reminder and to-do productivity app on the Mac App Store.

Fantastical 2.2 for Mac brings powerful new features to the experience, starting with full support for Microsoft Exchange accounts with native account syncing, invitation responses, availability lookup, categories and people lookup.

Other enhancements include availability information in calendars, support for printing with multiple layouts and a host of other under-the-hood refinements.

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Apple Maps brings Nearby, Flyover and Traffic features to more countries and locations

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 30, 2016

A steady stream of regular Apple Maps backend updates continues unabated with the latest expansion of the Nearby and Flyover features in new cities and countries around the world. In addition to five new major cities in Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom that now support Maps' three-dimensional Flyover views, the Nearby feature is now available in Austria, Denmark, Japan and Switzerland to help Apple's customers there find local businesses and points of interest relative to their current location.

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Is Apple going to rebrand OS X as ‘macOS’?

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 30, 2016

OS X, the desktop operating system which powers the Mac—“it's what makes a Mac a Mac,” says Apple—does not fit into the company's current OS naming scheme that has already given us watchOS, tvOS and iOS, but that might be about to change.

According to Portuguese-language site MacMagazine.com.br, developer Guilherme Rambo has discovered an interesting mention of 'macOS' in the “FUFlightViewController_macOS.nib” interface file within the FlightUtilities framework inside OS X code.

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This Mac app tracks how often you slack off

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated February 8, 2018

A lot of us use our Macs not only for our daily lives, but also for our work. The problem is, with all of the internet at our fingertips, it can be hard to stay focused when the allure of social networking, like Facebook and Twitter, as well as other things you can do to slack off, are no more than just a click away.

That's the idea behind the creation of an awesome free app for your Mac called Escape by FocusList, which tracks how much you slack off each day and provides you with a daily report for your viewing pleasure.

In this piece, we'll give you a look at the software and how it works; you might even find interest in trying it out for yourself!

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Common restore errors in iTunes and how to resolve them

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated January 20, 2023

Restoring your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad can resolve a variety of issues, but sometimes you'll experience issues even when you try to restore your device(s) with iTunes.

You may have received a "This device cannot be restored Error XXX" message from iTunes before, and unfortunately, you may have been forced to do some research to even begin to understand why you're getting the error, which can cause tons of frustration.

In this piece, we'll talk about some of the most common iTunes restore errors and how to fix them so you don't have to spend hours researching for solutions by yourself.

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FreeChat for WhatsApp brings a free native desktop app for WhatsApp to Mac

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated May 31, 2023

Anyone who uses WhatsApp Messenger who has been looking for a truly free native-style desktop app experience on their Mac has been hard-pressed to find a really good client that didn't have hidden costs and worked extremely well in the same package.

Fortunately, FreeChat for WhatsApp is an app on the Mac App Store that you can download on your Mac at no cost whatsoever, and it will work exactly how you would expect a WhatsApp Messenger client to work on your Mac without any hidden costs, ads, or caveats

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The ultimate guide to protecting your private information in Notes from the prying eyes

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 27, 2019

According to Apple, Notes is one of the most popular and most-frequently used stock applications on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

People use Notes for everything from memorizing recipes to keeping track of errands, creating shopping lists, storing inspirational quotes and even passwords, codes and medical data.

Not all notes contain sensitive information, but many do. Beginning with iOS 9.3 and OS X El Capitan 10.11.4, you can protect your notes with a password or Touch ID.

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to set up Notes protection, secure items on a note-by-note basis so no one can view their contents and more.

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DigiTimes: ultra-thin 13 and 15-inch MacBooks coming this summer

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 22, 2016

DigiTimes, a hit-and-miss Taiwanese trade publication, cited upstream supply chain sources in a report this morning as saying that Apple will ship a pair of all-new “ultra-thin” MacBook models with thirteen and fifteen-inch screens at the end of the second quarter of this year.

If true, Apple could allocate some stage time to these new MacBooks at its summer conference for developers, which is yet to be formally announced. According to the report, the new 13 and 15-inch MacBooks share a design similar to the existing 12-inch MacBook and are “thinner than the existing MacBook Air”.

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OS X El Capitan 10.11.4 is out with full Live Photos sharing, password-protected Notes and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 5, 2018

After spending more than two months in beta, OS X 10.11.4, a fourth major update to OS X El Capitan, today released for public consumption. The software update is now available and recommended for all OS X El Capitan users.

Even though it comes with a few noticeable outward-facing changes, OS X 10.11.4 does pack in some newsworthy improvements—namely in stock Messages, Notes and Photos apps. Full sharing of Live Photos via iMessages has been implemented throughout the system, too. Like other major OS X releases, 10.11.4 includes a handful of under-the-hood changes and tons of bug fixes and performance optimizations.

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