extra

Banish stubborn menu extras in OS X

Menu extras in OS X are small menu bar additions that appear on the far right of the system menu; they include a number of built-in controls such as the volume, Wi-Fi, and date and time menus. Third-party developers can also create their own menu extras. I've written about managing menu bar additions before -- usually you can just hold the Command key and drag the menu extra off the menu bar to remove it. But sometimes, depending on the development method used to create it, the menu extra won't allow you to disable or delete it.

These … Read more

Troubleshooting a freezing or hanging OS X menu bar

The OS X menu bar is a central location for accessing system resources in the Apple menu, application-specific menus, and also a number of system settings through menu extras that can be appended to the right side of the menu bar. Some extras that are on by default include the time and date, battery level, and volume control, but others can be added to the bar, including VPN status, keychain, the script menu, and Bluetooth status.

Though these menu extras are convenient, there may be times when problems occur with this part of the system menu, such as freezes and … Read more

Audio recorder and file manager

eXtra Voice Recorder Lite is an audio recorder and audio file manager. The free Lite version is a subset of the full product available for $9.99. eXtra Voice Recorder Lite installs on your Mac OS device quickly and easily.

The eXtra Voice Recorder Lite interface is clean. The audio recording capabilities are simple to work with. The audio file manager lets you import audio files and see all of them in a simple window. Once you have an audio file selected you can annotate it with metadata, and a search function can examine the metadata as well as file … Read more

Follow the 2012 Olympic games on your iOS or Android phone

There are few events quite as exciting as the Olympics. With athletes from all over the world competing for their respective countries, it's easy to get excited as you root for your country to win. Obviously, I'll be rooting for my American compatriots, but seeing the drama of each event, no matter who the winner is, can be appreciated by anyone.

This year, the apps for tracking Olympic events are better than ever before, but still not quite perfect. Since NBC is covering the Olympics, it's the only app in this collection that will have live streams … Read more

How to extract images from Office documents

Including images in an Office document can ensure that all relevant data is located in one spot for everyone's convenience. Maybe you need to include a schematic or blueprint diagram to help illustrate a point, or feel photos documenting a problem or demonstration could give your work a bit more power. In any case, the easy part is putting the images into the document, but what if you need to pull the images out of a file?

Sure you could use a screen grabber for small files, but what about large, high-quality images that don't fit into one … Read more

Q&A: MacFixIt Answers

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

This week people wrote in with questions about the best way to move data from an old user account to a new one, the purpose for the key given to you when you enable FileVault, and how to add new menu extras to the menu bar. Others asked how to manage exceptionally large virtual memory used by programs, and how best to move an OS installation to a new partition. We welcome alternative approaches and views from readers, so if you have any suggestions, post … Read more

Get an extra 4.5GB of Dropbox storage for free

Dropbox rolled out a beta version of the popular file-sharing service a while back that allowed users to automatically upload photos to their Dropbox accounts.

Following the recent release of the latest beta, Dropbox is now giving beta testers the chance to earn up to 4.5GB of additional space in their Dropbox accounts. Here's a brief rundown of how it works.

To get the additional space, you need to download and install the latest beta build from the Dropbox forums. Make sure to create a backup of your Dropbox folder before installing the beta. The easiest way to … Read more

How to manage menu extras in OS X

The OS X system menu's support for menu extras is a convenient way to access system and application settings and services. While a default set of menu extras such as the time and date, volume, wifi indicator, Time Machine status, and Spotlight menus are enabled, others can be turned on in their respective system preferences or application settings. Usually these menu extras stay to the right and out of the way of application and system menus, but in some instances they may run into the menus of various applications and be hidden.

Menu extras can usually be moved around … Read more

Hands-on with Second Screen: Bonus Blu-ray features on your iPad

While my iPad has become a second screen in many ways--as an e-reader, social-networking pane, video viewer, and more--a new series of apps from Disney is ready to take that into a whole new direction. Disney's Second Screen is a series of apps that take over your iPad and offer up a second screen of information during movie viewings, acting as a disembodied set of bonus features.

Second Screen is a feature that's currently offered on Disney's "Tron" and "Bambi" Blu-ray discs. Each movie has its own app in Apple's App Store. These apps are free, and hefty, too--the "Tron: Legacy" app clocked in at over 800MB, the "Bambi" app comes in at 498MB. However, you can't do anything with the app without activating a "Magic Code" found inside the Blu-ray disc's box. I made the mistake of downloading the app and leaving the Blu-ray box in the office, taking home the disc in a plastic sleeve. Unfortunately, the disc itself can't unlock the app, so I had to wait till the next day to Second Screen my home "Tron: Legacy"-viewing experience. Bottom line: don't lose that code.

The cleverest part of the whole Second Screen idea isn't its content: it's the app's ability to synchronize with the movie and play its related content alongside a time code of sorts that counts down in the upper part of the screen.… Read more

How to use SD cards for extra iPad video storage

Now that the iPad 2 has video capabilities, storage on the device is more important than ever. According to commenter "nigelgoodman" at Mac OS X Hints, you can create a workaround using SD cards and the iPad's Camera Connection Kit to get extra storage for your media.

Videos stored on an SD card can be imported with the Camera Connection Kit when formatted properly.

Formatting your SD card First, you must set up your SD card. In order for the iPad to recognize your media files, it has to think that the card you store your media … Read more