Mac

Deleting a Safari tab on one device from another one

This tip arrived with iOS 8 and Yosemite, but is a little down in the weeds, so you may not have noticed it. This clever detail is exactly the sort of thing that draws me to Apple products.

Video review of the Retina 5K iMac

Terrific review of the Retina 5K iMac. So well done. Trying hard to resist the urge to order one right this second.

How to set up and use Handoff for Yosemite and iOS 8

Handoff is a new feature that lets you edit a document on one device, then continue editing on another device. Sarah Guarino does a nice job walking through the requirements and setup, then takes Handoff through its paces.

Making phone calls using Yosemite

One of the many new features you get for free with Yosemite is the ability to make and answer phone calls from your Mac. Here’s a first hand run through of that experience.

How to upgrade to Yosemite

Ready to upgrade to Yosemite? First thing to do is make sure your hardware will support the upgrade.

BBEdit leaving the Mac App Store

Rich Siegel, founder of Bare Bones Software, gave a talk at the Cingleton conference about not selling future versions of BBEdit via the Mac App Store. This could be a canary in the coal mine.

Bash Bug vulnerability affects most Unix installs, including OS X

There’s a new vulnerability that impacts most Unix installs, including many embedded systems (devices that run Unix but don’t expose the OS interface) as well as OS X, the operating system at the heart of all modern Macs.

The issue is a flaw in the Bash shell that allows you to redefine a shell variable from the command line.

Arlington County, Virginia to provide MacBook Air laptops to all students

Arlington County is one of the largest counties in Virginia in terms of population. In a nice win for Apple, the school board announced that every single student in the county will be receiving a brand new MacBook Air. The rollout will start this year, with laptops provided to all 9th graders.

As it turns out, 9th grade is when the Computer Science track starts in Arlington, a good year to make sure that every student has equal access to the technology required to learn programming. The current curriculum is based on older Windows machines.

Terminal tricks

Terminal is the Mac OS X command line tool that gives you access to unbridled destructive power (i.e., step carefully). You’ll find it in Applications / Utilities. If you are brand new to Terminal, here’s a very gentle intro.

If you use Terminal on a regular basis, take some time to dig into Craig Hockenberry’s fantastic Terminal tricks blog post. Some of these you’ll know, but some will likely be new to you. It’s deep, it’s long, and so well written. Pass this one along to your tech friends.

Mac gets Shazam’s always-on music and TV recognition

Just as it does on your iOS device, the Mac version of the Shazam app will listen for music and attempt to identify it using its hefty database of tunes. Now it does TV too. Big privacy implications, however.

OS X Yosemite public beta to be released July 24

As promised, Apple is releasing a public beta of its latest Mac operating system, OS X Yosemite. Apple told me during a meeting earlier this week that the public beta would be released tomorrow, July 24. […]