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

This week, readers wrote in with questions about hiding the menu bar in OS X, a "formatter failed" error when erasing hard drives, alternative configuration possibilities for Apple's Fusion Drive technology, and whether or not a Mini DisplayPort cable can be used for Thunderbolt connections. I welcome views from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, please post them in the comments!

Question: Hiding the menu bar in OS X MacFixIt reader Shawn asks:

With the introduction of tabbed browsing, the way we surf the Internet has never had more distractions. Session Buddy and Session Manager aim to bring a little order to the chaos. Whether you're a couch surfer, a college student, or an office jockey, chances are you probably have what seem to be a thousand tabs opened right now. Managing all those open windows were a hassle before, but now with each one having about 20-plus tabs opened, too? One trick was to force shutdown Chrome. The crash-saving feature would save your session for the next time you launched your … Read more

CoreStorage is Apple's volume manager that provides an interface between the OS and physical volumes on the drive. It was introduced in OS X Lion for its full-disk encryption options with FileVault 2, but in addition allows for volume spanning, where multiple drives in the system can be combined into one logical volume for the OS to use.

The CoreStorage volume-spanning feature not only increases a single volume's storage beyond the capacity of a single drive, it also prioritizes storage to the primary drive in its logical volume. This means that if you use an SSD as the … Read more

Evernote has done a major overhaul of its application for the Mac, with a more visual layout and new features meant to make browsing and sharing notes easier, the company announced in its blog today.

Evernote's marketing guy, Andrew Sinkov, wrote that the company always tries to incorporate what users want in their updates, but this one changes the app more than ever.

"No previous update has matched the scope of what we're launching today," he wrote. "We've spent the past year identifying the needs of new and advanced users to craft an environment … Read more

Apple's recently introduced Fusion Drive system is available in Apple's current Mac Mini and will be included as an option for other Mac systems starting in November and December of this year. This new drive setup has its benefits, but also some limitations, and to address these Apple has issued a FAQ that addresses troubleshooting and how the drive can be used and configured.

A Fusion Drive is essentially a hybrid volume that spans both a solid-state drive (SSD) and a hard drive installed in the Mac. As large SSD drives are unfortunately still rather expensive, to get … Read more

This is not a review.

I have reviewed the Dell XPS One 27. The review posted a few hours before Apple announced its new iMacs. I accounted for a potential new iMac while I evaluated the Dell, but that review does not have a direct comparison between the two computers.

I also gave the Dell XPS One 27 an Editors' Choice Award. It makes every other high-end Windows 8 all-in-one look underfeatured. It's the all-in-one I would buy right now if money were no object (along with the Sony Vaio Tap 20).

I have not reviewed the new 27-inch iMac. I intend to when it comes out in December. I did get some hands-on time with it at Apple's launch event. I can tell you that it's not slate-thin like Apple made it out to be during the unveiling (a bulge containing the core components protrudes from the back of the screen). It's still a great-looking computer.… Read more

In OS X Mountain Lion, Apple included a few of its iOS applications, one of which is the Reminders app for setting up and organizing to-do lists. Reminders used to be part of Apple's iCal feature, but has migrated to a separate app that interfaces with the Calendar for all your Apple devices and with Apple's iCloud service. This unified setup not only makes sharing reminders among devices easy, but also offers a platform for sharing reminders among different iCloud users.

While a little redundant with standard calendar events, reminders are convenient alternatives since they are maintained in … Read more

If you use Apple's Aperture professional photo management program for OS X, then a new update is available that addresses a number of bugs with the previous release.

The update focuses around managing content from shared photo streams, including detecting faces, managing where streams are shared, and incorporating more cross-stream content management.

In addition to stream focus, the update fixes a number of problems with metadata management, resolution and use of secondary displays, and color profile management. The full list of addressed features is the following:

There's no such thing as a free lunch, right? Actually, my favorite Chinese place gave me a punch card good for a free trip to the buffet after 10 punches, so there literally is such a thing as free lunch. (I know, you have to buy 10 not-free lunches first. Let's not ruin my analogy with semantics, shall we?)

There's also such a thing as free software -- if you know where to look. For a limited time, a site called AppyFridays is offering a free Mac software bundle. Combined value of the six included apps: $90.… Read more