The Geek Pub » Macintosh http://www.thegeekpub.com Drink Beer and Geek Out Mon, 29 Nov 2010 01:49:40 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Apple Market Share http://www.thegeekpub.com/1131/apple-market-share/ http://www.thegeekpub.com/1131/apple-market-share/#comments Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:22:46 +0000 The Big Geek http://www.thegeekpub.com/?p=1131 Hit up your good buddy Google and ask “What is Apple’s market share?” and you’re likely to get a plethora of different answers.  Apple’s market share calculations are unique in the industry.

Why you ask?  Well it depends on whether or not you classify the iPad as a PC or something entirely different.  “But it’s not a PC!” you say.  Does it cause a decrease in Netbook sales?  “Why yes it does.”  Does it compete with the same dollars people are spending on a netbook? “Why yes it does…”  Then by all means, we should at least consider that the iPad is related to Apple’s market share of desktop and notebook computers!

In July, Apple reported that it has sold 3.47 million Macintosh Computers in its second quarter.  Comparatively HP, the number one PC maker worldwide shipped 4.6 million computers.  However, Apple also shipped 3.27 million iPads.  If you combine those numbers together, Apple is the number one by volume at 6.75 million units shipped.

While many will continue to deny that Apple s likely the number one computer manufacturer in the United States, the numbers don’t lie.  Apple is moving up in a big way, regardless of what Acer’s CEO thinks.

]]> http://www.thegeekpub.com/1131/apple-market-share/feed/ 7 How to bond or pair an Apple Remote http://www.thegeekpub.com/1021/how-to-bond-or-pair-an-apple-remote/ http://www.thegeekpub.com/1021/how-to-bond-or-pair-an-apple-remote/#comments Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:52:20 +0000 The Big Geek http://www.thegeekpub.com/?p=1021 Have you ever been in a room with multiple Apple computers, and one or more remotes.  The experience can drive you insane as a single remote starts controlling several computers.

How to Pair an Apple Remote

In order to bond or pair a Mac with a specific remote control you’ll need to hold the remote in the direction of the target machine while holding the Next/Fast Forward button and the Menu buttons simultaneously for 5 seconds.  Ideally you will want to be within 3-4 inches of the front of your Mac.

The picture shown above is for the white plastic Apple remote.  However, the procedure is the same for the Apple Aluminum remote.

You’ve done it!  Only a single remote will work with your Mac now.  Keep reading to learn how to reverse this procedure.

How to unPair an Apple Remote

Unpairing the Apple Remote is slightly more detailed, but still relatively simple.  Access your System Preferences pane by clicking the System Preferences icon in the dock (or in your Applications folder).

From the System Preferences pane, click on Security.

From the Security pane click the button unPair (if the button shows “Pair” it means no remote is currently paired).  You can now use any remote with your Mac computer.

It’s that simple!

]]> http://www.thegeekpub.com/1021/how-to-bond-or-pair-an-apple-remote/feed/ 0 How to block all Remote Controls in OS X http://www.thegeekpub.com/1016/how-to-block-all-remote-controls-in-os-x/ http://www.thegeekpub.com/1016/how-to-block-all-remote-controls-in-os-x/#comments Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:38:25 +0000 The Big Geek http://www.thegeekpub.com/?p=1016 Sometimes when you are around many Mac users and everyone has a remote, say during presentations it can be annoying to have others remote controls messing with your Mac.  Or in the case of a kiosk computer, you don’t ever want a remote control to function.

To disable or block all remote controls from accessing your mac, click on the System Preferences icon.  From the System Preferences screen click on Security.

From the Security settings window check the box next to Disable remote control infrared receiver.

That’s all there is to it.  No remote control will now be able to work with your Mac (regardless of pairing).

]]> http://www.thegeekpub.com/1016/how-to-block-all-remote-controls-in-os-x/feed/ 0 How to Renew your IP address on a Mac http://www.thegeekpub.com/966/how-to-renew-your-ip-address-on-a-mac/ http://www.thegeekpub.com/966/how-to-renew-your-ip-address-on-a-mac/#comments Wed, 07 Jul 2010 17:15:49 +0000 The Big Geek http://www.thegeekpub.com/?p=966 Have you ever had a problem with your Mac network and needed to release and renew your DHCP acquired IP address? We’re going to show you how to do it on an Apple Mac.

Renew you IP address on a Mac

The first thing you need to do is click on your System Preferences.  From the System Preferences screen, under the heading Internet & Wireless click on Network.

From this screen, select the Network Adapter that you want to release and renew the IP address for in the left column.  Then click the Advanced button in the lower right corner of the screen.

From the Advanced screen, click Renew DHCP Lease.

That’s all there is to it!  It’s really that easy!

]]> http://www.thegeekpub.com/966/how-to-renew-your-ip-address-on-a-mac/feed/ 0 What is hidd? Why is it running? http://www.thegeekpub.com/865/what-is-hidd-why-is-it-running/ http://www.thegeekpub.com/865/what-is-hidd-why-is-it-running/#comments Wed, 30 Jun 2010 01:27:30 +0000 The Big Geek http://www.thegeekpub.com/?p=865 Are you looking in you Macintosh OS X Activity Monitor?  Do you see a process called hidd?  What is it?  Why is it consuming cpu and memory?

Human Interface Device Daemon

The hidd service is the Human Interface Device Daemon.  In fact, the hidd service is required for your Mac to operate properly as it is responsible for the operation of any human input devices, such as your mouse (or trackpad on a MacBook) or keyboard!

It is a very important process.  If you are experiencing high CPU or memory utilization from hidd, you may want to restart your computer.

Note: If the hidd process is killed, it will restart immediately.

]]> http://www.thegeekpub.com/865/what-is-hidd-why-is-it-running/feed/ 0 How to enable “tap to click” on the Mac http://www.thegeekpub.com/705/how-to-enable-tap-to-click-on-the-mac/ http://www.thegeekpub.com/705/how-to-enable-tap-to-click-on-the-mac/#comments Tue, 22 Jun 2010 04:00:27 +0000 The Big Geek http://www.thegeekpub.com/?p=705 A frustration for new Mac OS X users is tap to click.  You can’t just tap the trackpad to click on an icon, you have to actually click the button.  Or do you?

Actually, the truth is… enabling “tap to click” is very simple on the Mac.   To enable tap to click go to your system preferences and click on trackpad.

The very first option you should see is”Tap to Click“.  Just check the box and close out of the screen.

It’s that easy!  You’ve just made your trackpad behave just like a Windows/PC trackpad!

]]> http://www.thegeekpub.com/705/how-to-enable-tap-to-click-on-the-mac/feed/ 0 How to create a Sparsebundle on OS X http://www.thegeekpub.com/679/how-to-create-a-sparsebundle-on-os-x/ http://www.thegeekpub.com/679/how-to-create-a-sparsebundle-on-os-x/#comments Wed, 16 Jun 2010 02:36:30 +0000 The Big Geek http://www.thegeekpub.com/?p=679 A sparsebundle is a really nice feature under OS X that allows you to create a file to send your time machine backups to.  There’s a whole lot of good reasons to create one and we’re going to walk you through it!

So what is a sparsebundle anyway?  A sparsebundle is a file on the Mac OSX filesytem for use with time machine.

Let me ask a couple of questions.

  1. Do you do time machine backups to a firewire/1394 or USB drive but would prefer time machine only uses a portion of that drive?
  2. Do you do time machine backups to a network drive (technically unsupported) but would prefer time machine only uses a portion of that drive?

If you answered yes to one or both of those questions, you need a sparse bundle!  A sparsebundle file is the answer.  With a sparsebundle file you can create a file on your drive that is dedicated to Time Machine.  The cool thing is that file can be of limited size.  So for example if you have a 1TB drive, you could limit time machine to 500GB of that drive and save the rest for other uses.  This is extremely popular amongst users of the Drobo.

Creating a sparsebundle is very simple, but must be done on a Mac OSX drive (HFS).  You can copy or move it to another drive after it has been created.  Use the following command to create your sparsebundle:

hdiutil create -library SPUD -size $SIZESPEC -fs Journaled HFS+
-type SPARSEBUNDLE -volname $MACHINENAME_$MAC_ADDRESS.sparsebundle

Where $SIZESPEC is the size of the backup volume, and $MACHINENAME_$MAC_ADRESS  is your Mac’s name followed by an underscore and then your Mac’s MAC Address (otherwise known as its Ethernet ID; visible in the Network System Preferences panel), but without the colons. So if your Mac is named MyMac, and the Network System Preferences panel lists your Ethernet ID as 00:18:b3:11:84:dd, then you would use MyMac_0018b31184dd  for the name of the sparsebundle.

The -size parameter can probably be as large as you want, now that Apple has evidently fixed the sparsebundle issues that were causing all but the most recent backup to be dumped. However, you can also specify a smaller size if you (like me) want to create a hard limit for the amount of space your Time Machine backups will take on your network drive. hdiutil does have a -resize option if you need to utilize that later.

For those of you not 100% up on what we’re doing you can enable Time Machine to access SMB/Network shares with following command:

defaults write com.apple.systempreferences  TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

Now just change your time machine to point to the new drive and you’re done!

]]> http://www.thegeekpub.com/679/how-to-create-a-sparsebundle-on-os-x/feed/ 1 How to Clear the DNS Cache on a Mac http://www.thegeekpub.com/674/how-to-clear-the-dns-cache-on-a-mac/ http://www.thegeekpub.com/674/how-to-clear-the-dns-cache-on-a-mac/#comments Tue, 15 Jun 2010 03:07:23 +0000 The Big Geek http://www.thegeekpub.com/?p=674 By default, Mac OS X will cache DNS requests.  Caching means that the OS remembers the IP addresses of sites you’ve visited.   This is done to speed up browsing of the web by not asking for information again that we already know.  Sometimes however, things change, and we need to delete that cache before it expires naturally.

For OS X Tiger use the following command to clear the DNS cache:

lookupd -flushcache

For OS X Leopard or above use this command:

dscacheutil -flushcache

Note:  For those a little less inexperienced, you’ll need to open a terminal window from the Utilities folder in order to enter this command.

]]> http://www.thegeekpub.com/674/how-to-clear-the-dns-cache-on-a-mac/feed/ 0 Top 5 New Mac User Mistakes http://www.thegeekpub.com/666/top-new-mac-user-mistakes/ http://www.thegeekpub.com/666/top-new-mac-user-mistakes/#comments Tue, 15 Jun 2010 01:26:09 +0000 Geek in Heels http://www.thegeekpub.com/?p=666 New Mac users switching from Windows often run into very infuriating problems.  In Windows it worked one way, in the Mac it works another.  Some things for the better, some things just different.

We talked in a previous article about Steve Jobs and his OCD tendencies for the way his company is run, and for the way his computers or software products are designed.  The Mac changes many of the behaviors of the average computer user.  Some of these changes are for the better, while are some are just simply a different way of doing things.  In a few cases, they are changed for the worse. Ultimately, the old Apple marketing slogan “Think Different” certainly rings true.  So let’s get started!

1) Closing an Application and thinking it’s closed

This has to definitely be the absolute most common issue I find with new (and even some relatively seasoned) Mac users.  Their computer runs terribly slow so they reboot it and think its fast again.  “Stupid Mac, even it has to be rebooted to go fast again!”, they say.  But the truth is far different.  The truth is, they clicked the little red x on several programs and they thought they were closed.

On the Mac, a program is not closed and removed from memory until you Quit it (with a few exceptions).  This is done by right clicking the icon in the dock and choosing Quit, or by choosing its name in the menu bar and selecting Quit.

This is such a difference in thought process we actually wrote an article about this very problem a few months back: How to tell if a program is running on the Mac.  Check it out if you want to learn more.

2) Double Clicking the Title Bar of a Window thinking it will Maximize

On Windows computers, when you double-click the title bar the window your are clicking will become full-screen, or maximize.

On the Mac, when you double-click an applications titlebar, it will minimize down to the dock!  Exactly opposite of what you expected.

3) Pressing the Control key instead of the Command key

Yes, on Windows computers, all of your shortcuts are based on the control (CTRL) key.  CTRL+V top paste, CTRL+C to copy.

However, on the Mac… most of these shortcuts are the same, but use the COMMAND key.  COMMAND+V to paste, COMMAND+C to copy.  Again, not better or worse, just different.

4) Downloading an App and running it from a disk image

I’ve seen it time and time again!  A user downloads a new program, be it Firefox, Opera, or some other sweet daddy utility.  But instead of copying it to their applications folder, they either run it directly from the disk image, or from a copy on their desktop.

When you download an application for the Mac, most of the time it comes in the form of a disk image.  Think of it as a virtual CD-ROM, or virtual thumb drive.  Usually, the image provides a shortcut to your apps folder for you to drag their app onto.  Somehow I think this confuses people more than it helps.  Dragging it onto your desktop is just as silly, but at least I understand why people get confused.

5) Not understanding the Dock icons

The dock icons (the ones at the bottom of the screen if you haven’t moved them) are confusing to some people.  Although since Windows 7 now uses a dock clone this will probably get better over time.

The dock icons serve several purposes.

  • They provide a shortcut to an application without visiting the Applications menu/folder in finder.
  • They provide feedback if a program is running.  If it’s running there is a glowing dot below it, if it is not there will be no dot.
  • Provides a way of organizing frequently used applications and documents.

Conclusion

The Mac is different from the PC.  Try to spend some time learning why Apple made these decisions and you’ll figure out why many people prefer the Mac.

I can certainly see me doing a part 2 or even part 3 to this article.  Look for more to come!

]]> http://www.thegeekpub.com/666/top-new-mac-user-mistakes/feed/ 0 How to Hide Harddrives on the Mac Desktop http://www.thegeekpub.com/660/how-to-hide-harddrives-on-the-mac-desktop/ http://www.thegeekpub.com/660/how-to-hide-harddrives-on-the-mac-desktop/#comments Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:32:45 +0000 The Big Geek http://www.thegeekpub.com/?p=660 A question I get asked often from Mac newbies: “How do I hide all of these hard drives on my desktop?”  I’ve got some great news for you.  It’s super simple!

Macintosh by default puts icons for all of your hard drives on the desktop.  While this might be useful for some, it can be very annoying for others.  Especially when you connect a lot of remote hard drives or USB/Firewire drives such as a Drobo.  We’re going to show you how simple it is to add or remove these icons from your desktop using the Finder Preferences.

In order to access the finder preferences simply click Finder in the OSX Menu Bar (the bar at the top of your screen) and then preferences.

You will be presented with several options you can adjust.  You can choose to show or hide Hard disks, External disks, CDs, DVDs, iPods, and/or Connected servers. Simply check the box next to the ones you want to see, or uncheck the ones you wish to hide.

It’s really that simple!

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