Category: os x

  • Looking for the best Google Reader replacement, don’t forget the plumbing

    Google is shutting down Google Reader, its RSS feed collector, in July. Google’s bare bones reader web site was never the greatest way to actually read your RSS feeds, automatically updated collections of all your blog post subscriptions. There were plenty of alternatives for that function — I was using Reeder on my iPad and…

  • Yikes, Microsoft’s Time Machine clone leaves out tons of important stuff

    (Updated to include a way to unhide files and add them to a “library” for backup) Basically, this post is a warning to anyone using the new File History backup program in Windows 8. The program is severely limited because it will only back up files in a few preset locations that can’t be expanded.…

  • Instapaper isn’t Instaworth it anymore – switching to Pocket

    I think I was one of the earliest fans of Marco Arment’s ingenious Instapaper service. I even wrote up a rave review back in March, 2009. This is the original thing that let you save long web articles to read later in your browser or on your phone or ereader. The amazing feature that first…

  • How to delete the horrid sparsebundle from your Time Capsule

    Short version: Here’s how to actually delete a sparsebundle Time Machine backup file from a Time Capsule — use Windows. Long version: We have an Apple Time Capsule here at home and it’s almost always been an incredibly great wifi router with built in storage. The kids, especially, benefit from having all of their laptop…

  • Microsoft has great news for retina display Mac users

    One of the biggest problems for Mac users wanting to upgrade to a retina display has just been resolved. Microsoft issued version 14.2.4 of its super popular Office suite today expressly to include support for the higher resolution display. That means millions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint users on the Mac can now safely upgrade…

  • Why critical reviews matter

    I’m grateful to John Gruber, a great tech writer and proprietor of the popular blog DaringFireball, for linking here the other day and sending lots of traffic to my post criticizing him. I’m also super grateful to the Quick Cache plug-in for WordPress which helped my blog handle all the added traffic without being, as…

  • Lion upgrade today? No way

    Over on my commentary blog, The Orange View, I’m laying out the case to wait on installing the Mac OS X 10.7 Lion upgrade for a couple of days to let the bugs out: Lions eat guinea pigs for breakfast. Don’t be one. It’s the same solid advice I gave in one of my very first…

  • Chrome browser, Pinboard site lead the list of recent changes

    Spent some time housekeeping on the blog tonight, including updating the software and services in use page. Google’s Chrome browser, version 10, has replaced an increasingly buggy Firefox. I am really digging the way extensions have their own little button row. I’ve also noted that I had to dump Mozy for Crashplan last month after…

  • Getting iTunes to sync standard def videos to your iPad

    We’re big fans of the recent PBS Masterpiece series Downton Abbey and bought the high-definition version from iTunes to watch on the big TV that is connected to our Mac mini media server. But when my wife asked me to load the series onto her iPad recently, I ran into an annoying syncing problem based…

  • The future of Apple computing isn’t all led by Apple

    There’s a great video up on Macworld’s site of a conversation between four highly knowledgeable Mac pundits about the “future of the Mac.” The participants were Daringfireball’s John Gruber and Tidbits’ Adam Engst along with Jason Snell and Dan Moren from Macworld. The discussion was interesting and worth the 48 minutes or so of my…