Dan Kessler is the owner of MacMaven Consulting.
One of the more notable user interface differences between Macs and PCs is the location of the menu bar. On Macs, one menu bar is located at the top of the primary display. On Windows, every application gets its own menu bar. The advantage of the Mac approach is that it saves screen real…
The Fusion drive is a $250 build-to-order option for iMacs and Mac minis. Apple doesn’t push this option very hard, but it’s something you should strongly consider. The Fusion option gets you a 128 GB solid state drive in addition to the standard (mechanical) hard disk drive. The read speeds on the SSD are…
For most of the history of personal computing, large companies shunned Macs because there were few tools available to manage hundreds or thousands of computers. Large companies have scalability needs that small offices do not. Apple has addressed some of these issues with OS X Server and Apple Remote Desktop. These tools are adequate…
Anyone who’s been using Time Machine for years knows that your Time Machine drive eventually fills up. Time Machine handles this situation by automatically deleting your oldest backups. If you don’t want this to happen, the best solution is to buy an additional hard drive. Storage is extremely cheap now, with 4 TB external…
A study by a company that makes PC monitoring and administration tools found that the most reliable Windows laptop was the mid-2012 MacBook Pro 13″. This shouldn’t be entirely surprising. Apple computers have always been manufactured with top-grade components. Boot Camp provides the drivers to run Windows relatively seamlessly. While there are minor issues…
(This post is for our more advanced readers who are curious about how Time Machine stores its data.) OS X stores Time Machine metadata in file extended attributes. These attributes can be viewed using the xattr command. To view this data: 1. Navigate to your Time Machine backup disk using Terminal. 2. cd into…
I came across the advice of a Mac consultant who wrote that you should restart your Mac once or twice daily to prevent your Mac from slowing down. This seems like a rather dubious way to fix a problem. Your Mac should not be slowing down as you use it. There are a variety…
Apple recently added two-step verification to Apple IDs. This optional feature helps thwart hackers from using your Apple ID. This mechanism requires you to enter a four digit code after entering your usual password. The code is delivered to your iOS devices or your cell phone. In most cases, a hacker won’t have access to…
The Mountain Lion Contacts application has some printing options that you might not be familiar with. After you select Print… in the File menu, click on the Show Details button. There’s a Styles drop-down list, where you can select: Mailing Labels Envelopes Lists Pocket Address Book Before you select Print… find the contact(s) you’d like…
I recently started using QuickBooks 2013 for Mac to handle MacMaven Consulting’s accounting needs. I had previously been using a Windows accounting package. While the Windows package handled the job adequately, the lack of Mac integration slowed me down. Tasks like emailing invoices and entering customer information required extra steps. So last month I pulled…