Mac
Do More With Dashboard
Matt Cone April 17, 2007
Dashboard is one of the coolest Mac applications, isn’t it? It’s easy-to-use, it’s beautiful, and it wows your PC-using friends every time. With the push of a button, all of your widgets zoom into view and you have information at your fingertips! If you pack your Dashboard with widgets, like we do ours, you’re probably looking to trick out your ‘board even more. You know – take things even further to wow your friends again and again.
Advanced AirPort Extreme Configuration
Stephen Korecky April 16, 2007
In last’s week Nerdification Station, we covered AirPort Extreme basics. We showed you how to use the Airport Utility for the first time, and we walked you through the entire AirPort Extreme set up procedure. If you read that article and followed along with your own AirPort Extreme Base Station, you should have a working, password-protected wireless network. So what do you do now? Start tweaking! We’re not going to cover every detail of the AirPort Extreme, because we’d be here all day if we did!
How to Listen to Internet Radio Stations
Ric Getter April 12, 2007
Much has been made recently of podcasts – the prerecorded audio and video shows that are freely available for download on the Internet and through the iTunes Music Store. We’re big fans of podcasts! But there are times when we want to listen to live, streaming music and radio shows. That’s when we fire up iTunes and tune into an Internet radio station. You see, there are literally thousands of radio stations broadcasting over the Internet.
How to Customize Your Desktop and Screen Saver
Matt Cone April 10, 2007
Putting a picture on your desktop and adding your own screen saver is one of the easiest ways to customize your Mac. There are loads of free desktop pictures and screen savers available on the Internet – just search for them! In fact, Apple has a website chock full of free screen savers. You have a couple different display options when it comes to desktop pictures and screen savers. You can add just one picture that will be displayed on your desktop all the time, or you can choose to shuffle through your desktop pictures to make a custom slide show for your desktop.
File Taxes With Your Mac
Matt Cone April 10, 2007
Mark Twain said that the only inevitabilities in life are death and taxes. We’re certainly not about to argue against those words of wisdom! But as tax day in the United States fast approaches (it’s April 17, 2007), we would like to know how to file our taxes as quickly and painlessly as possible. One thing we don’t want to do is use the standard government-issue paperwork. It’s too complicated, too time-consuming, and too conducive to errors.
Keep Track of People with Address Book
Eric Buczynski April 6, 2007
Every Mac ships with a great little organization application called Address Book. This Apple program can help you keep track of friends and family, and it integrates seamlessly with other Apple applications, like Mail. If you’re new to Address Book, you’ll find it to be a very comprehensive way of keeping track of contacts, friends, email lists, and more. There’s so much power packed into Address Book that you’ll wonder why you didn’t use it sooner!
How to Block Internet Advertising
Matt Cone April 5, 2007
Should there be advertising on the Internet? It depends on who you ask. Internet experts and pundits everywhere will tell you that we need advertising to support websites and foster the creation of great online content. Joe “Internet-Surfer” Sixpack and his pals will tell you that they hate animated banners, pop-up windows, and even the newfangled textual advertisements. Who’s right? We don’t know and we don’t care. We do know that we detest Internet advertising.
How to Make a Mac Start Up Disk Image
David Miller April 2, 2007
If you’re into preventative maintenance and creating backups like we are, you’ll need to create a Mac start up disk image. It’s an indispensable tool – one which could save your data and prevent a lot of headaches down the road. This how-to will show you how to make an image of one hard drive and store it on another drive. This image will be compressed and will make recovery fast and easy.
Sherlock: The Forgotten Mac Application
Eric Buczynski March 29, 2007
It was a big hit in Mac OS 8 and 9, an interesting application in Mac OS 10.2 and 10.3, and now it’s been all but forgotten. I’m talking about Sherlock, of course – Apple’s file and web searching tool. Sure, you can search your Mac with Spotlight and get Internet information with Dashboard Widgets, but Sherlock can still come in handy. Look for it in your Mac’s Applications folder.
How to Use Bluetooth Headsets With Your Mac
Dave Strom March 28, 2007
Forget the iPhone. You can make free Internet phone calls with your Mac to anyone in the world! You don’t need anything, really: Most new Macs ship with iChat AV, a built-in microphone, and an iSight camera. In fact, all you need is another friend with a Mac and iChat AV. But if you’re as serious about Internet phone calls as we are, you’re going to need some serious equipment. That’s where the bluetooth headsets come in.