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Apple
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September 29, 2016Over the last few months with the release of the macOS Sierra and Siri on the desktop I started to wonder about my aging iMac. I am using an iMac for 2012 with the retina display the machine runs well but I was thinking maybe it was time to get a laptop. Over the last month or so I have started using a Chromebook as my main machine for running my blog, advertising and web design business. The Chromebook just seems to be easier because of its tight integration with Google services. The Chromebook was a cheap purchase for an impulse buy the Lenovo N21 11 inch which was a cheap enough buy off Amazon at $147 dollars and free shipping. Pros One of the things I really love about the Chromebook is how all of Google’s services are again native since Chrome OS is Google’s operating system. Chrome OS is pretty much a virus and spyware free environment because of the very limited and striped down operating system. The Google Play Store for the Chrome OS is great and has tons of awesome apps for Chrome however not every app for Android is available for Chrome OS. Android app to Chrome OS integration is one of the features Google is currently working on to date to allow a more unified platform between the Chrome OS and Android OS. My Chromebook model is on the list below but I have not gotten them yet. https://sites.google.com/a/chromium.org/dev/chromium-os/chrome-os-systems-supporting-android-apps?visit_id=1-636107715840223816-799093762&rd=1 The one thing I noticed about the Chromebook is the speed. It boots up in record time I literally can boot the device and login in matter of two minutes. One thing that’s nice about Chromebook is if you need to reload the operating system it takes under 15 minutes. The whole system was designed...
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September 16, 2016With the new MacOS (formally OS X) coming out this coming Tuesday I decided it was time to upgrade the ram in my Macbook Pro. I currently have 4 gigs of ram and wanted to upgrade to 8 gigs of ram for faster speed more ram can never hurt. If I have learned anything over the years, it’s never buy ram from Apple’s site unless you want to pay a lot more money. I went to Crucials site and ran their tool to find out what memory I needed for my Macbook Pro. Still wanting to save money I went on Amazon and found the ram at prime member price with free shipping. Now two days later thanks to Amazon Prime two day shipping it was time to change the ram. First thing to do is to take the bottom off the MacBook Pro by removing the 10 screws and lifting off the lid. It should come over very easily. Then press on the two clips on the side of the ram to pop out the 2 sticks. Then snap in the two new sticks they should snap in easily they can only go in one way. Now it’s time to turn on the MacBook Pro and enjoy a faster computer.
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September 14, 2016
How to Record Audio on a Mac with Movavi Screen Capture Studio for Mac
Have you ever wanted to save some audio track that you’ve been listening to on your Mac? It could be an audiobook, song, soundtrack in a movie, or perhaps even the sound from a health seminar or presentation that you’re watching. If you’re thinking about doing any of those things then you should give Movavi Screen Capture Studio for Mac a try. As you can guess from its name it is designed to record video footage from your Mac’s screen – but it can also record any audio that you want it to as well. To learn how to record audio on Mac using Movavi Screen Capture Studio for Mac won’t take long at all because of how intuitive and user-friendly the software is. In fact you can start right now by following these steps: Select whether you want to record the system audio or audio from another device (such as a microphone), or both. Just click the corresponding icon depending on your choice so that a green tick appears on it. Ignore the capture area settings (unless you also want to record a video). Click ‘REC’ and wait 5 seconds for the recording to start. Click ‘Stop’ when you’re done. Click ‘Save’ and go to the ‘Video and Audio’ section then scroll down to find the audio format that you want to use (such as MP3, AAC, and so on). It may be more convenient to manage your recording by using the hotkeys in Movavi Screen Capture Studio for Mac. Also if you’d rather not have to sit at your Mac and ‘babysit’ the recording you could set the timer so that it automatically stops after a certain duration. Once you do finish recording the audio track, you may also want to edit it with the other features in... -
June 5, 2015Some Apple Macs have a particularly terrible flaw that lets hackers sneak in and remain undetected security researcher Pedro Vilaca noted in his blog. Older Apple computers may be susceptible to a new zero-day vulnerability the flaw can be used to install rootkit malware that’s nearly undetectable and very hard to remove. Macs purchased one year ago or before, apparently are susceptible to the attack. When a Mac goes into sleep mode and wakes back up, it allows direct access to the BIOS. It’s a weird quirk that lets someone tamper with the code there. The vulnerability is in Apple computers’ UEFI (unified extensible firmware interface), which is designed to improve upon a machine’s BIOS. UEFI code is usually sealed off but Vilaca discovered that when Apple computers made before mid-2014 go to sleep and are reawakened, the code is unlocked and able to be modified. The attack was successfully tested on a MacBook Pro Retina, a MacBook Pro 8.2 and a MacBook Air, all running the latest EFI firmware available. Macs made in 2014 are not vulnerable, which could mean Apple already found the bug but hasn’t patched older models yet. The only way to defend against the vulnerability is to always shut your computer down or never let it go to sleep by adjusting the settings in the power save area under preferences. A similar exploit, called Thunderstrike, was discovered last year, but Vilaca claims the one he found could be even more dangerous as it may be possible to remotely exploit the bug.
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June 6, 2014Macs are on the rise in businesses and educational institutions more users are increasingly asking for more Mac support from their workplaces. Supporting Macs means coming up with ways to configure them to run your programs and use a pre-configured operating system images to save your IT department time and energy. Software like Disk Utility and Carbon Copy Cloner, which can copy the contents from one Mac’s hard drive to another’s, are fine for imaging individual Macs, but these tools typically don’t scale very well in large environments, and administrators will still need to perform some post-install configuration tasks manually like renaming computers and binding them to directories. DeployStudio, a free third-party tool that combines the convenience of NetBoot with flexible and customizable tools for automating application installs and post-configuration tasks. If you’ve got a large number of Macs to image and not a lot of time to image them, it may just be the program you’ve been look to use. DeployStudio can actually be installed and run from any external drive large enough to hold the software, a basic OS X install, and your images and installers; but the best and most convenient DeployStudio setup will use NetBoot to simplify the imaging process. The install guide is very good and can be found on DeployStudio site. After the install is complete you design the image you want on your mac and “Create a master from volume”. After the volume is captured you mount the volume and create a workflow. The product is that easy. DeployStudio is free and asks for donations for support. This is great software for any administrator running macs it’s simple, free and easier to use then Apples out of the box tools. I give this software a 5 star rating.
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March 5, 2014An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away There seems to be a new collaboration in town. Apple and Google and…healthcare? Recently, Google has announced its smart contact lens project, which could have a profound impact on the monitoring of glucose levels for diabetes patients. But Google isn’t alone in its dreams to venture into healthcare. Apple too, has announced plans to introduce an iWatch that will also monitor health concerns. Image Source: Enfuzed.com That’s right: Apple has plans to expand its arsenal of products to wearable computers and medical sensor devices. Fans of Apple have been looking forward to this kind of wearable tech for awhile now, but this time, the company plans to increase its focus and resources on the project. And it was just recently that Apple had the chance to collaborate with engineers, scientists, and managers skill in biomedical technologies, fitness, and glucose sensors. In addition to hiring a new time of specialists, Apple has also met with U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials. This development, coupled with the rumors of the new technology, could indicate the direction in which Apple is heading. While it’s still in the developmental stages, designers of the iWatch are aiming for a 1.5-inch display with “full” iOS, biometrics and other sensors, and a 4-5 day battery life. If all goes according to plan, we might be hearing about a release date for late 2014. And what’s a device without an app? Jeff Williams, Senior Vice President of Operations at Apple, and the Vice President of Software Technologies, Bud Tribble, met with FDA officials late last year to talk about developing mobile medical applications. Apple is also said to be working on a product labeled “Healthbook,” which will be designed specifically for tracking health metrics. Supposedly,...
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December 4, 2013Does my Mac have an Intel or PowerPC processor? Not sure if your Mac is using Intel or PowerPC processors? 1. In the Finder, choose About This Mac from the Apple menu. 2. Look at the Processor line to see which kind of processor is in your Mac. Keystroke Description Press C during startup Start up from a bootable CD, DVD, or USB thumb drive (such as OS X install media). Press D during startup Start up in Apple Hardware Test (AHT). Press Option-Command-P-R until you hear startup sound a second time Reset NVRAM Press Option during startup Start up in Startup Manager, where you can select an OS X volume or network volume to start from. Press Eject, F12, or hold the mouse or trackpad button Ejects any removable media, such as an optical disc. Press N during startup Attempt to start up from a compatible network server (NetBoot). Press T during startup Start up in Target Disk Mode. Press Shift during startup Start up in Safe Boot mode and temporarily disable login items. Press Command-V during startup Start up in Verbose mode. Press Command-S during startup Start up in Single-User mode. Press Option-N during startup Start from a NetBoot server using the default boot image. Press Command-R during startup Start from the OS X Recovery System1
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November 27, 2013Over the many years of its development and progress, Apple has put out some of its best products by acquiring other companies cranking out innovation. The purchase of NeXT in 1997 gave us the products of Mac OS X and iOS, while the 2000 purchase of SoundJam MP begat iTunes, which made the iPod an original entertainment entity. But not all the purchases made in promise turned out to be gems for the consumers or company. Whether the technologies never made it on the shelves or just didn’t melt into the family of Apple products, the flops of brave acquisitions might not have put the company in the poorhouse, but they were definitely a face-palm moment. Going Up Against a Goliath In 1995 and under Steve Jobs, Apple gave a license to Power Computing Corporation to make clones of the Apple computers. It was a ploy to make a business model of their computer close to that of Microsoft and play in the action of Microsoft’s hit software, Windows 95. But by 1997, Steve Jobs realized that their opportunity to surpass Microsoft was long gone. The Mac clones built by Power Computing were actually undercutting the sales of Apple’s higher margin computers, and Microsoft was already the winner of the game. So, that same year, Apple bought the company Power Computing Corporation and shut down the production of the Mac clones. Below are some prime examples of flop deals. An Educational Setback In 2001, Apple spent $62 million in shares for the purchase of Powerschool, which was software for keeping track of grades and assignments. It was considered a strange decision for Apple to make this purchase, given that it was for a particular niche market and out of Apple’s usual realm of products. Despite the company’s efforts to make...
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September 11, 2013iPhone 5 discontinued, iPhone 4S remains as free option Apple iPhone 5S will include Touch ID fingerprint scanner Apple demos Nike+ Move alongside new M7 processor for enhanced fitness apps iPhone 5S camera specs: better optics, slow motion, and ‘true tone’ flash Epic Games announces ‘Infinity Blade 3’ for iOS This is the gold iPhone 5S The Apple A7: new iPhone processor packs faster performance and better graphics The iPhone 5S Apple iPhone 5C is official, a plastic and colorful iPhone for $99 Apple says iWork will come free with all new iOS devices Apple launches iTunes radio on September 18th iOS 7 will come to iPhones and iPads on September 18th Apple: 700 million iOS devices sold by end of next month