mac

Regardless of your feelings for iPhoto on OS X, having to launch and wait for it to load your photo library only to access a screenshot or a single photo in your Photo Stream can be annoying. The good news is, after following the steps laid out below, you'll be able to access your Photo Stream at any time, without even having iPhoto running. The process comes courtesy of a post by Ben Ward (which originated from a Mac OSX Hints thread) earlier this year. It looks more complicated than it really is, but as always, proceed at your … Read more

A while ago a number of MacBook users noticed a pretty annoying black-screen bug on their systems, in which the computer would appear to be running but would not show any output on the display. To get around this issue, people were forced to restart their systems, losing any unsaved data.

Investigations of this bug showed the problem appeared to be rooted in the handling of the dual graphics cards in MacBook Pro models from 2010, and while Apple issued a software update to address the problem, this update did not help all who were experiencing it.

The primary workaround … Read more

Yesterday Apple released a developer preview build of OS X 10.8.3 to its testing community, and upon investigating the build a few people have found it includes new drivers for AMD's high-end Radeon 7000 series graphics cards. People who have tested the build with PC versions of the Radeon 7970 have found that the card is recognized and works, and suggests that possibilities for new hardware offerings from Apple are in the works.

In the past, Apple has switched back and forth between graphics processors from AMD and Nvidia with iterations of its hardware, with its latest … Read more

NEW YORK -- "Apple should double-down on Jony Ive." That's what Gene Munster, managing director and senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray, counseled during a state of Apple presentation at the Business Insider Ignition conference.

"The concept of the Apple's operating system has basically been copied by competitors... The real substance is the hardware side, where Jony Ive plays into it," Munster said. "The difference is in the hardware, and isn't fully appreciated."

In October, Ive was given the leadership role in developing the user interface for … Read more

You asked, we answered. It turns out that the iPod Touch is the product a surprising number of you wanted to see unboxed and tortured on our show -- so here you go! In addition to the regular gauntlet of tests, it seemed pretty obvious that the Wild Card for the iPod Touch pretty much had to involve children. So we rounded up four kids, ages 2 to 5, and gave them pizza, chips, candy, fruit, and juice, and let them go crazy with the iPods. Let me be honest: I could watch this video all day long, and not … Read more

The latest versions of Apple's iMac go on sale this Friday.

Apple said this morning that the 21.5-inch iMac will be available at that time through its online and retail stores and via some Apple resellers. The 27-inch iMac, meanwhile, will be available for order through the Apple Online Store and will begin shipping in December.

The 2012 edition of the iMac desktops come with 8GB of memory, a 1-terabyte hard drive, a quad-core Intel Core i5 processor, Nvidia GeForce graphics processors, and the new Fusion Drive, a hybrid that combines solid-state storage with a traditional platter-based hard … Read more

Apple's computers are not the cheapest in the world, but are highly desired and as a result many people purchase their Macs secondhand through auction sites like eBay and Craigslist. Unfortunately in most cases these systems are old enough that their warranties have expired, so if something goes wrong after your purchase you might need to spend more cash to have it fixed.

Under the circumstances, it is best to give any used Mac a thorough check before you decide to purchase it. (Obviously, it would be hard to do this for most online purchases.) I've covered this … Read more

One way to access or activate some display- and window-related features in OS X is to use screen hot corners, which you can set up to activate the desired feature by moving your mouse to the respective corner. For example, if you wish to manually activate the screensaver, then you can bind this to a hot corner and then move your mouse there to always activate the screensaver.

Hot corner features can be set up in the Desktop & Screen Saver system preferences by clicking the "Hot Corners..." button at the bottom of the Screen Saver tab, and … Read more