How-Tos

If you use your Mac in areas where it may be accessed by those other than yourself, then undoubtedly you might be concerned about its security. While using a cable lock for both desktop and laptop systems is a good recommendation, you also might set the system up to prevent unauthorized access if you need to quickly step away from it.

One way to ensure your data is safe is to simply log out of your computer every time you leave; however, this will quit your running applications and interrupt your workflow. In OS X Mountain Lion, Apple's autosave … Read more

OS X applications and services often contain a number of hidden settings that can be used to tweak your Mac's behavior to improve performance or provide an option that is not available by default. To manage these hidden options, you can use the "defaults" terminal command to edit the target preferences file associated with a service and manually adjust a variable's value.

Since the defaults command performs these edits in a single line in the Terminal, it is relatively easy to use and is often suggested as a way to edit property list (plist) files, which … Read more

No matter how anal you are about keeping your iPhone safe and intact, there is still a chance your home button will eventually suffer the effects of normal wear and tear.

The iPhone 5, which features a change to the anatomy of the home button, may solve this problem, but previous iPhone models are still susceptible to this common phenomenon.

If you're still within the provided one-year warranty and your phone doesn't show signs of accidental damage, head on over to Apple. As long as you're covered by warranty, the company will replace your phone or perform … Read more

The iPhone 5 may have a bigger screen, but text still looks pretty small to my aging eyes. In fact, it looks that way on all my iDevices.

That's because iOS relies on a fixed font size, and while a smattering of apps let you increase that size, there's no "font" option to be found in iOS settings.

Actually, there is, kind of, if you know where to look. It turns out you can enlarge the default iOS font a little bit or quite a bit, depending on your eyesight needs. Here's how:

1. Tap … Read more

A firmware password on Mac systems locks the hardware to prevent booting to alternative modes that could bypass OS X security, but in order to access some of these modes you first have to disable the firmware password. While this can be done using Apple's Firmware Password Utility on the recovery drive or OS X installation disc, there may be times when you do not have access to this drive either because it is missing or corrupted, and therefore cannot use the password utility.

Unfortunately in these cases for newer Mac systems shipped in 2011 or later, you have … Read more

In the past, it was easier to load the Redbox Web site and reserve copies of movies or games there. The reserve feature is especially useful in heavily populated cities, where something might be gone by the time you make your way to the physical Redbox. With access to this same functionality on your mobile device, you can easily reserve a rental during (provided you're not driving!) or before your commute home from work or school.

Grab a copy of the new Redbox app for your mobile Android device. You will need Internet connectivity to use the … Read more

The Android style guide was updated to include Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean Holo theme variations, and this is (thankfully) causing many apps to update their user interfaces. Change is good -- well, most of the time -- but what if you want to take a look at reviews that are only pertinent to your device? Or maybe you're only interested in opinions about the latest version? That's why the Google Play Store has filtering options, even though they're kind of hidden.

Here's how to access them:

The newest version of Spotify's mobile app now features a NFC (near-field communication) sharing ability. This new feature allows users to share albums, artists, playlists, profiles, or search results by tapping NFC-enabled Android devices together. However, it's worth noting that to get the best use of this feature, you'll want to be on a Premium Spotify membership so any shared music content can be played.

To get started, you'll first want to make sure that NFC is supported and turned on for both devices. To do this, press the menu button and then Settings. When the … Read more

To make sending multiple files by e-mail or other means easier, Apple includes a quick Finder contextual menu option to zip a selection of files and folders into an archive, which not only will ensure that the files stay together, but can also greatly reduce their size for the file transfer. While convenient, Apple does not provide a means to encrypt or secure the contents of the ZIP archive with a password; however, there is a way to do this if needed.

To place a file or folder into a ZIP file that is encrypted, you will need to use … Read more