Mac

New MacBook Pro and MacBook Air may debut at WWDC

With Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) starting June 10, speculation is swirling as to what might be introduced beyond significant, Jony Ive-inspired updates to the company's mobile and desktop operating systems.

According to one of more accurate analysts tracking Apple, Mingchi Kuo of KGI Securities, a slimmer MacBook Pro based on Intel's new Haswell processors and a MacBook Air with improved microphones are expected to debut at WWDC.

In a recent report, Kuo wrote:

We expect the new MacBook, featuring an upgrade to Intel's (US) Haswell processor, will be in the spotlight for Apple at the … Read more

Q&A: MacFixIt Answers

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which I answer Mac-related questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week, readers asked about using drives attached to a Time Capsule as separate shared backup destinations for Time Machine, how to deal with managing photos both in the Finder and in iPhoto, and managing a completely black MacBook screen.

I welcome contributions from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, please post them in the comments!

Question: Using multiple shares on a Time Capsule for Time Machine backups MacFixIt reader Gregg asks:

I was wondering if I … Read more

How to keep your Mac running in tip-top shape

When you use your new Mac for the first time, the fresh OS installation and new configuration will have the responsiveness and speed that's intended by Apple. For the most part, this should continue throughout the life of the system. However, as with any system, there are times when you may experience slowdowns.

These can happen either from running low on resources like RAM or hard drive space, from software incompatibilities, or even from errors with your system.

While you can tackle these problems if they arise, there are several things you can do to keep your system running … Read more

Mac tip: Copy and paste plain text with Get Plain Text

Rich text formatting, be gone!

Two questions: Do you use a Mac? Do you find yourself copying and pasting text throughout the workday? If you answered "yes" to both questions, I would recommend spending $2.99 in the Mac App Store on Get Plain Text.

Once installed and running, Get Plain Text places an icon in your Mac's menu bar. Click on it and from the drop-down menu, choose "Automatically clear formatting." Now when you copy and paste text, you'll grab only the text and none of its formatting. You can easily turn this … Read more

Camino browser for OS X reaches end of life

Development of the long-standing alternative browser Camino has been cancelled.

Camino was one of the first alternative browsers for OS X, developed using the Gecko engine. Starting initially under the name Chimera, it offered a number of optimizations over Apple's Safari browser, and an alternative to Firefox before Chrome even existed.

Yesterday the browser's development team announced that Camino would no longer be developed, citing an inability to keep up with the fast pace of Web development, and encouraged Camino users to look to other browsers to maintain a secure and fast Web experience:

After a decade-long run, … Read more

How to quickly annotate and send a screenshot in OS X

A picture being worth a thousand words makes screenshots often the most convenient method for conveying instructions to people. While Apple has a number of screenshot options built into OS X, these often result in intermediary files that can clutter up your computer if you frequently use them.

For example, if you press the classic Shift-Command-3 shortcut to take a screenshot, the image file will be saved to your desktop, where you can open it, crop, and otherwise edit it before sending it to your recipient. With this method, though, you are left with the file on your desktop that … Read more

Walkmac revisited: The inside story of the 'first' portable Mac

Recently my brother-in-law, Ken Landau, was doing a major spring cleaning when he came across a bit of computing history in his basement: a Colby Walkmac, the first battery-operated Macintosh computer and first portable Mac with a LCD display.

I'd never heard of the Walkmac, which wasn't built by Apple but by electronics pioneer Chuck Colby, who founded Colby Systems in 1982. The Apple-sanctioned model you see here was "modded" around a stock Mac SE motherboard and hit the market in 1987, two years before Apple put out its Macintosh Portable in 1989 for $7,300. … Read more

Review: XtraFinder adds features to your Mac's Finder window

With Finder options typically located in several different menus, XtraFinder for Mac combines them all together for easier access. This free program could use some design help but would be beneficial for those who have to constantly switch between menus and programs in the Finder window.

After installing into the applications folder, XtraFinder for Mac automatically restarts the Finder window to apply any changes. Double clicking the program icon brings up its main menu, which lacks any graphics and has a cluttered look. The first menu contains options for tabs, windows, and shortcut keys. Users can also change the tab … Read more

Review: Voice converts text to audio quickly and easily

Voice for Mac works fairly well at translating text into audio, but the available voice options all sound very computerized. The application is available for free and installs easily.

The main menu seems sparse with few details that would be expected of an advanced application. Fortunately, the main functions are clearly labeled. A box allows text to be manually typed or pasted in from other applications. An export button allows the output to be saved for later use, and a Preferences menu allows selection of a number of playback voices and speed of the reading. After typing in the text, … Read more