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.

Get a taste of Siri on your Mac right now with this neat trick

Ever since Siri was announced in 2011, Apple users have been excited about the prospect of the digital assistant coming to OS X. More recently, rumors have indicated that a Mac version of Siri will ship with OS X 10.12 this fall. September is quite a long way off, but it's possible to get a taste of Siri-like voice commands on your Mac right now, thanks to the accessibility features baked in OS X.

Sony confirms remote play feature for PlayStation 4 games coming to the Mac soon

Sony today confirmed in a blog post that it's working on a Mac and Windows app with remote play functionality for PlayStation 4 games.

“We’re bringing PS4 Remote Play to Windows PC and Mac,” said the Japanese gaming giant. “This feature won’t be available to test in the beta, but you can look forward to it soon.”

Remote play via Mac and Windows will require the forthcoming PlayStation system software update version 3.50, codenamed “Musashi,” which is now available to those who have signed up for the beta and were selected.

How to restore your Mac from a Time Machine backup in Recovery Mode

Suppose a software update or an app you installed has corrupted system files and as a result your Mac refuses to start up properly, what do you do?

Those who have planned ahead and created a bootable USB install disk for El Capitan can do a clean install of macOS, and then restore their Mac from the most recent Time Machine backup.

But there's a better way to deal with such situations. In this tutorial, we'll educate you on booting into macOS' Recovery Mode and using the built-in recovery tools to restore your Mac from a Time Machine backup.

How a journalist convinced Jobs to bring iTunes to PCs and other tidbits from Tony Fadell interview

It was The Wall Street Journal technology columnist Walt Mossberg, one of Steve Jobs's favorite reviewers, of all people who has finally managed to persuade then Apple CEO to expand the addressable market for iPods by bringing iTunes to Windows PCs.

Jobs, Nest founder Tony Fadell and then Apple executive charged with iPod and iPhone development recalls, long insisted that the iPod be used as a vehicle to increase Mac sales. “Steve, the iPod is $399. But really it’s not. Because you have to buy a Mac!” We had to give people a taste,” Fadell recalls telling Jobs, to no avail.

He eventually relented and agreed that Apple should bring iTunes to Windows, under one condition: the software was to be tested by journalist Walt Mossberg. “We’re going to build these and run it by Mossberg,” Jobs reportedly said. “And if Mossberg says it’s good enough to ship, then we’ll ship it.”

Walt reportedly said, “Not bad. I’d ship it,” and the rest is history.

Transmission for Mac gets its first major update in nearly two years

The popular open-source, cross-platform BitTorrent client, Transmission, today received its first major update in more than a year and a half. As first noted by Softpedia, the surprise update makes the free of charge app fully compatible with the user interface on Macs running OS X 10.9 Mavericks and later.

Transmission can now trim potential URIs from clipboard and supports downloading from HTTP servers on OS X El Capitan. Transmission's daemon, web client, Qt client and GTK+ client have also received various fixes. All told, there are over 50 changes in this release of Transmission.

New Microsoft ads for Windows 10 focus on things Macs can’t do

Microsoft this weekend published four new commercials for its Windows 10 operating system that showcase things “Macs can't do”. The ads feature Kristie and Jess, AKA The Bug Chicks, the two women who are apparently trying to change the way kids think about bugs.

The two characters, one of whom is a Mac fan jealous of Windows 10 features, explore competitive advantages of Microsoft's operating system like the built-in Cortana personal assistant, support for inking and drawing on notebooks with built-in touchscreens, the ability to log in to Windows 10 with one's face and more.

As each Windows 10 feature is highlighted, the other woman responds with a variation of the “I don’t have a touchscreen on my Mac, I’m jealous of that” theme.