On April 12, T-Mobile will carry the iPhone 5. This is a big deal because the phone will be offered contract-free. Under the Simple Choice plan, the service will cost $50 per month for unlimited talk, text, and 3G data, plus 500 MB of 4G (high-speed) data. 2GB of 4G data can be added for…
Author: Dan
Dan Kessler is the owner of MacMaven Consulting.
If you have a library card from the New York Public Library, you can download three free MP3s a week from the Freegal Music site. While the music selection isn’t as large as the iTunes music store, there’s still plenty to choose from. You’ll need your library card PIN in order to log in. Check…
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Apple lawsuit update
Back in November, I wrote a blog post about the SIM deactivation issue on Verizon iPads. In a nutshell, Apple’s web advertising is deceptive. Apple claims that the cellular data plan can be managed from the iPad at any time, when this is clearly not the case. What Apple doesn’t tell its customers is that…
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Window Tidy
Windows 7 introduced a feature to keep your windows organized, called Snap. It allows you to quickly arrange two windows side-by-side, filling up the entire screen. This feature wasn’t critical to me until I starting using a 27″ monitor. With a monitor this size, you’ll want to use a dual window arrangement to take advantage…
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OS X Server – NetInstall
When you’re responsible for rolling out tens or hundreds of Macs in your company, an automated build process is necessary. Could you imagine having to configure each machine individually, and manually installing your company’s software packages? This might be practical in a small company, but it’s a huge drain of resources in a mid-sized…
If you’re considering buying an iPad for use on the Verizon network, or already own one, the following is extremely important. Apple advertises that cellular service for the iPad can be purchased month-to-month, and managed directly on the device. Unfortunately, this isn’t true on Verizon iPads under the following circumstances: 1. If you cancel your…
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Memory options for 2012 iMacs
The 2012 iMacs are about to be released. Before you place your order, it’s important to know the memory options for each model. The memory is not user accessible on the 21.5″ model. This means that you’ll need to pick an 8 or 16 GB model when you order it. Once you own it, you can’t upgrade…
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VPN on OS X Server
Telecommuting has become a viable option for employees of many large companies thanks to the availability of remote access technologies. You might have heard of some of these technologies – VPN, remote desktop, VNC, and IPsec, to name a few. What you may not realize is that you can leverage these technologies for your small…
Parallels Desktop 8 offers many enhancements over version 7. Most of the improvements have been covered by the various media outlets already, so this post won’t be a typical review. What I’d like to cover are some of the more esoteric issues that I discovered with Parallels 8. The first issue was particularly aggravating, but…
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Two great utilities
iStat Menus is a lightweight system monitoring tool that displays a wealth of information right in your menu bar. At a glance, I can see my Mac’s CPU temperature, network activity, free RAM, and CPU activity in each core. More detailed information is available by clicking on each menu bar icon. There are even more…