Enabling And Using The "root" User In Mac OS X

The “root” user in Mac OS X has special rights that other users don’t. This is a privileged user that has full access to all the areas of the file system and can perform special tasks. This user is disabled by default; to enable it read on to find out how this is done.

What Is the Root User

In Mac OS X, the “root” user (also known as superuser and the administrative user) is a privileged user who has full read and write rights to all parts of the Mac file system. The main purpose for the root user account is to perform specific administration and monitoring tasks. It is recommended to log off of the root user account after completing a task, and disable it if it is not used often.

Enabling Root User

Mac OS X 10.4.* and earlier

1. Click Finder in the Dock.
2. Open the Go menu and select Applications
3. Open the Utilities folder
4. Open NetInfo Manager .
5. Click the lock on left-hand side of the window.
6. Enter name and password for an administrator account, then press OK.

then

In Mac OS X 10.2 and later, open the Security menu and select Enable Root User

In Mac OS X 10.0 / 10.1, open the Domain menu and select Security. Then from the submenu, select Enable Root User.

1. If a root user password has not been previously set, you will see a message on your screen saying “NetInfo Error”. Click on OK.
2. Here you can enter the root password. Once entered, click on Set.
3. Re-Enter the password and click on Verify for verification.
4. Click on the lock again to keep changes.

Mac OS X 10.5 or later

1. Open up Finder and then select Utilities from the Go menu.
2. Open Utilities Directory.
3. Click on the lock in the Directory Utility window.
4. Enter name, password for an administrator account, and then press OK.
5. Open the Edit menu and select Enable Root User.
6. Enter password that you want to use for “root” in the Password and Verify fields and then click on OK.

How To Log In As Root

To log in as root, follow these steps:

1. If you’re already logged in, open the Apple menu and select Log Out.
2. If you’re logging in using usernames with pictures, then click on Other.
3. Type in “root” in the Name box.
4. Type in the password in the Password box. This is the one you defined while enabling the root user account.

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Putting Your Mac to Sleep

Find out how to set time and days for putting your hard drive(s) or Mac to sleep when these are not in use, and wake them up when you want to use them.

Why Put Your Mac to Sleep?

In Mac OS X you’ve a number of options for putting the Mac and its hard drive(s) to sleep when you’re not using them. When a Mac and its hard drive are asleep, they’re still on but at that time they consume a lesser amount of power. It is also much quicker to wake a Mac or hard drive(s) from sleep mode than to restart a Mac when it is completely shut down, hence it is often preferred by people to put a Mac or hard drive to sleep instead of shutting down when not using it.

Hard Drives

If you put your hard drive to sleep, you will not only save energy but also reduce drive’s wear. So, it is always a good idea to put your hard drive to sleep until it is needed. To do this open the System Preferences in Mac OS X then click on Energy Saver icon. Next, click on the Sleep tab then select the “Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible” option.

Mac

Many people like to keep their computer on at all times even when they’re not using it. You should be aware that keeping your Mac on and awake consumes unnecessary power. To save power and also the wear, tear of your Mac, Mac OS X gives you a number of options for putting the Mac to sleep:

• Go to the Energy Saver pane then click on the Sleep tab. Move the bar under “Put the computer to sleep when it is inactive for”to the desired time interval.

• Click Options tab on the Energy Saver pane. Select the “Allow power button to sleep the computer” option, whenever you want to put your Mac to sleep, just press the power button. Check the user guide of your Mac to see whether or not this option will work on your computer because this does not work with all Mac models.

• Click on the Schedule... button at bottom-right corner of the Energy Saver preferences pane, a small dialog box will open. Check off the check box at left of the drop-down menu then select Sleep from the menu. Schedule your Mac to go to sleep at a particular time you want by typing the desired time in the text box in the end of the line. You can select the days for putting the Mac to sleep from the drop-down menu at left of the time text box. You can select any day of the week, all week days, weekends or everyday.

Wake

When you put your Mac to sleep, naturally you will also want a way to wake it up at a later time. Click on the Options tab then select the “Wake for Ethernet network administrator access” option, this applies to Macs connected to a network with Ethernet settings.

You can schedule your Mac to wake or start up (when switched off) at a set time. Click on the Schedule… button at bottom-right corner of the window, a small dialog box will open. Check off the Start up or wake check box and enter the time in the text box when you want to wake your Mac. Next, click on the drop-down menu at left of the time text box to select the days of the week for starting or waking the Mac.

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The Best Way To Setup Time Capsule For The First Time

One complaint that many people have had about Apple's Time Capsule is difficulty setting it up for the first time. However, after some trial and error I figured out a great way to get Time Capsule up and running smoothly.

Setting Up Time Capsule For the First Time

When you first open Time Capsule, you will notice that it comes with a Time Capsule Airport Utility Disc. You do not need to waste time installing this software if you already have the latest version of Apple's Airport Utility on your Mac.

To get started setting up Time Capsule, plug the time capsule into a power outlet and connect it to your computer via ethernet. OS X should automatically recognize it, but if not, open up the Airport Utility. You can do this by doing a spotlight search for it or navigating: Finder - Applications - Utilities - Airport Utility.

After your have Airport Utility open, it will automatically search for Apple wireless devices. After it finds your Time Capsule, select the continue button. The first screen will ask you to enter a name and password for your Time Capsule. Keep in mind this information will be used for your Time Capsule access only, not your Airport wireless connection. After you have filled in that info, click continue.

The next screen will simply ask you how you want to secure your Time Capsule disks. You can just leave the option set on with device password. This will secure your Time Capsule access with the password you created on the previous screen. Users will not be able to connect without this password. The 2nd option on this screen asks you if you would like to allow guests to connect without a password. Make sure that "Not Allowed" is selected. Click continue

The next screen you come to will allow you to configure other devices with your Time Capsule. Just click continue for now.

The final screen is crucial. On the screen you are at at now, select "Disable wireless and connect to a computer or network using Ethernet".

Now, you will need to open up your Time Machine preferences. To do this, you can either click the Time Machine icon if you still have it in the dock. If not, you can click the time machine icon located on the top navigation bar (next to the bluetooth, sound, and battery indicators).

In the Time Machine preferences window, click the button that says "Select Disk". A box will pop-up that has your Time Capsule hard drive. By default, it should say "Data". Select it.

Time machine will now do its first backup. It will take at least one hour depending on how much data you have.

A couple tips to make sure everything goes right: After Time Machine is done doing its first backup, restart your computer. After it restarts, you are going to do another backup. Click the Time Machine icon, or select Time Machine from the top nav bar and select "Back up now". This time, Time Capsule should not take near as much time to backup. After it has finished, you are going to repair disk permissions. To do this, navigate Finder - Applications - Utilities - Disk Utility. Select your hard drive and click repair disk permissions. Restart your computer once more.

Be sure to read part 2 of First Time Setting Up Your Time Capsule to finish the process correctly!

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What Should I Look For In An Online Backup Service For My Mac?

Do you want to start using an online backup service for the data on your Mac? Do you know where to start looking? This article will give you some guidance in what to look for when you are shopping for your online backup company.

Why Online Backup?

Recently I decided it was time to have an offsite backup for important files on my computer (mainly movies and photos of my son). I have two external backups in my house, but if anything were to happen to those drives all of those files would be lost. I wanted to make sure I had a way to get those files if my externals were not an option. I did a lot of research before settling on Crashplan because they met my requirements. Here is what I used as a guide to picking my service.

One note: This is not a review of the Crashplan backup service. It happens to be the service I chose, so I mention it quite a bit.

Is it Mac compatible?

Of course, the first thing you should look at in exploring backup services for your Mac is the system requirements for the company. Most importantly, is the service Mac compatible? Macs are growing in popularity, but there are still many companies and services that do not work with and/or support Macs.

Pricing and Storage

Next to being Mac compatible, the main feature of any service that you will be looking at is price. Most services range from four to five dollars a month depending on how much you want to pay up front.

One nice feature of Crashplan is that you can actually backup to a computer at someon else’s house instead of the Crashplan servers. If you do this route, the service is free. However, you have to make sure the computer at the house you are accessing is always on and available to backup to. If it isn’t on 24/7 it is useless.

The next item on your list is how much storage space you are getting for your money. Many services give unlimited space, however when I researched the company I was going with I found a couple that did not provide unlimited storage. I highly suggest you go for unlimited space, but there might be something in a service you like that overrides this.

 

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Apple to Announce iPad Magazine & Newspaper Subscription Model at December Event?

Following rumors earlier this week that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) are to unveil the world’s first iPad-only newspaper subscription, comes a new report from Daring Fireball’s John Gruber that suggests Apple are to hold a media event on December 9th, where News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch will announce the plan for a new billing option for periodicals on the iPad.

Gruber wrote today, “My understanding, based on information from sources not at Apple, is that this is not something like iBooks — there is no central ‘iNews’ or ‘Newsstand’ app from Apple. Rather, it’s a new subscription billing option for apps — true recurring submissions — paid through your iTunes account.”

Although recent rumors have surrounded an iPad-only newspaper from News Corp, it seems that the December event won’t be just to announce this publication, but rather to announce a new recurring subscription model for newspaper and magazine companies to use that would allow for better delivery of their publications through Apple’s tablet.

As Cult of Mac’s John Brownlee points out, a subscription-billing option for the iOS will only encourage more publications to release digital editions of their periodicals for the iPad. Brownlee also indicates that the model could pave the way for subscriptions to other services, such as multiplayer online games or Netflix subscriptions.

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Tips and Tricks to Make My Firefox Run Faster on Mac OS X

Is Firefox running particularly slow on your Mac lately? Chances are, you need to clean your hard drive. Here are the steps that I use to make my Firefox run faster on my Mac OS X. I also provide other resources in case my methods does not work for you.

Delete Unused Applications and Files

Do you have applications and files that you haven’t touched in at least one year? Chances are, you may never need them again. Just in case you do, back them up on an external hard drive. Then delete them from your computer.

Make sure to go through your Preferences folder inside the System folder to delete any files that relate to your old applications. You will be surprised by how much hard drive space you can regain by doing this initial task. Sometimes it will be as little as a few megabytes. Other times, you could regain as much as a gigabyte.

Clean Your Cache and Logs

Full caches and logs are usually the number one reason why your Mac slows down over time. You can invest in a such as MacKeeper and do a daily purging. MacKeeper also cleans out duplicate files, old files, and languages you will never use. The first sweep with MacKeeper cleared 60GB of files out of my cache. Both Firefox and my computer ran normally after that maintenance session.

Clean My Mac is another utility software that is similar to MacKeeper. This software is comparable to MacKeeper in that it has all-in-one disk maintenance utility.

Alternately, you can save your money and use a free program called Onyx. It will clean out your caches, delete obsolete files, delete cookies, clear browser history and bookmarks, repair your permissions, and more. You can set Onyx up to run automatic maintenance sessions so that you don’t have to stop what you are doing.

Check for Spyware and Viruses

Yes, Macs can get invaded with spyware and viruses like PCs. The best freeware I have found online is ClamXav. This program will pull any infected files and stick them in a “Bad File” folder, which you can dispose of after the scan is finished.

The best paid alternative I have found to ClamXav is MacScan. MacScan will scan your hard drive as well as clean out your browser history and cookies. I was amazed by how fast Firefox ran when I used the demo version of this program.

Get Under the Firefox Hood

What if you tried the above and Firefox still runs too slow? I found some tutorials on YouTube that will take you under the hood to set Firefox’s parameters. At this point, I must be honest with you by saying that I have not tried this because the above procedures have worked well for me.

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Using Accessories from Apple: Wireless Keyboard Pairing Guide

Going from wired to wireless? If you've just picked up a new wireless keyboard from Apple, pairing that wireless keyboard will probably be your next step. But don't worry! Pairing your new wireless keyboard is simple. Read on to accomplish this step by step.

Bluetooth and Pairing

Apple's Mac OS X supports a variety of keyboards, including wired keyboards, radio frequency (RF) wireless keyboards, and Bluetooth wireless keyboards. Each of these technologies has various advantages and disadvantages. If you need to pair a wireless keyboard it probably uses Bluetooth technology to communicate with the computer.

Bluetooth technology allows devices to communicate with other devices securely, with minimal interference. Since Bluetooth devices work exclusively with another device, those devices must be paired. Pairing is a simple process where the computer and the Bluetooth device establish a mutual connection. In order to do so, the device must be confirmed with the computer. Luckily, with an Apple, pairing wireless keyboards is simple and quick.

Prepare for Pairing

Your Bluetooth wireless keyboard will need to be prepared for the pairing. If you have never used the keyboard before, be sure it is loaded with a fresh set of batteries. Since Bluetooth keyboards are wireless there is no cord to provide power to the keyboard.

Next, turn the keyboard on. On the Apple wireless keyboard the power button is on the right side near the eject button. You will probably need to hold the power button down until the indicator light turns on. The indicator light on your Apple WIreless Keyboard will blink until pairing is complete.

Now we need to ensure that the computer is actively looking for Bluetooth devices. Click the Bluetooth icon on the menu bar and ensure Bluetooth is turned on. Next, launch System Preferences from the Dock. The System Preferences window is divided into many subcategories. We are interested in Hardware. Find the Keyboard icon within the Hardware category.

The Keyboard settings area allows you to control things such as key repeat rate, function key behavior, and keyboard shortcuts. Of course, we're interested in pairing the Bluetooth keyboard. Click on the Set Up Bluetooth Keyboard button at the bottom of the window.

Pairing the Wireless Keyboard

The keyboard pairing utility should find your new keyboard. Follow the steps on-screen to pair the keyboard to your Mac. Pairing usually consists of pressing certain keys in a specific sequence. The entire pairing process ensures that the correct keyboard is being paired with the correct computer, and that there is mutual security between them.

If the pairing utility is unable to find a keyboard, quit System Preferences. Check your keyboard to ensure it is still turned on. You can do this on the Apple wireless keyboard by quickly pressing the power button. The indicator light above the eject key should glow a solid green for a few moments. If the keyboard does not appear to respond, remove the batteries, re-insert them, and try again. You may want to try swapping batteries if the keyboard does not respond or if the pairing utility still cannot detect the keyboard.

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How to Speed up YouTube Video Buffering on a Macbook Pro

Tired of YouTube videos bringing your MacBook Pro to its knees? A quick change in your YouTube preferences may speed up buffering and performance speed.

 

Why Flash video buffering is slow on a MacBook Pro?You may have noticed that your brand new MacBook Pro performs really well except when you go to YouTube to watch your favourite videos. You’ll notice your computer slow downs, the fans spin up, and you might even feel your MacBook Pro getting warmer anytime you stumble upon Flash content online. The common denominator in both these situations is Flash content.

Whether it’s a MacBook, a MacBook Pro, or an iMac, all Mac computers run OS X which has a long history of receiving poor support from Adobe (the creator of Flash) when it comes to Flash content. While the reasons for this are not clear and the relationship between Adobe and Apple isn’t the smoothest, the good news is that there is something you can do.

 

This measure is a result of the latest revision of HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language: the language used to design web sites), which added the ability to integrate video content into web sites without using Flash. What this means for MacBook Pro users is that we finally have an alternative to Flash and more importantly, and alternative that is much better supported in OS X.
How to speed up video buffering on Youtube

 

While the fifth revision of HTML has not been adopted everywhere yet, some of the bigger web sites have already started to implement it. YouTube is one of the bigger names out there to have implemented this Flash alternative, although you wouldn’t know it by visiting their homepage. The good news is that you’re not stuck waiting until YouTube decides it’s ready – you can opt in right now to their HTML 5 trial and reap the benefits of moving away from Flash.

 

To opt in, log into your YouTube account and then go to http://www.youtube.com/html5. Take a moment to read the notes and then select “Join the HTML5 trial”. The change takes effect immediately and you will benefit from faster buffering times, better performance, and better battery life on your MacBook Pro. Additionally, an HTML5 icon will be visible in the video bar when you're watching HTML5 content.

The HTML5 icon on the video bar will be visible when you're watching HTML5 content.

 

Unfortunately the fact that this is a trial means not all videos are available in HTML5 yet, however whenever you come upon a Flash-only video YouTube will seamlessly show you the video in Flash. You will notice the drawbacks of Flash: slower buffering times, sluggishness, and reduced battery life, but you will not be locked away from content by opting into the HTML5 trial.
Will more web sites use HTML?

 

As adoption of HTML5 increases, MacBook Pro users will benefit from faster buffering, smoother performance, and increase battery life (if on a laptop).The Flash player used in OS X has always been very slow compared to its Windows counterpart. While this issue has been known to both Adobe and Apple for several years, neither party has done much to solve the problem. Fortunately, the release of HTML5 has brought a new solution which is slowly taking over the web. Adobe itself recently demoed an application that allows Flash developers to convert their work to HTML5. With this last piece of news, adoption of HTML5 is expected to increase exponentially.

 

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Mac Os X 10.5 Leopard Installation Problems

Sometimes during the Mac OS X installation process, you may encounter this error message: "You can not install Mac OS X 10.5 on this volume without changing your installation settings.” If you see this message don't worry, you can probably resolve this issue easily. Read on to find out how.
Causes for Problems installing Mac Os X 10.5 Leopard

This problem could occur due to a number of reasons, which include the following:

1. You have installed and used TechTool Pro (Mac repair tool) to create an eDrive on a particular volume.

2. Leopard performs a thorough check of the hard disk before listing them in the destination window. If a problem is detected during this check, this issue may occur.

Due to either reason, this problem can occur and the installation may fail.
Resolution

To resolve these problems, you need to make sure your hard disk has no errors on it. You can use the Disk Utility software to verify and repair the problem volume. Once the errors on your disk have been removed, try the installation again and it should work this time.

Sometimes when you attempt to repair the disk with Disk Utility, it fails to detect or repair the errors and gives errors like “Incorrect number of Extended Attributes (it should be 0 instead of [ some number])”. If the Disk Utility fails to verify or repair the disk then the only way to workaround this is to reinstall your Mac OS X with the Erase and Install option. This will erase everything from your hard disk and install a fresh copy of Mac OS X, but you will have to face unfortunate situation of complete data loss.

In such situations, it is essential that you use data recovery software to save your important and precious data. There are plenty of recovery software programs available capable of performing smooth recovery in all cases of data loss.

I recommand Stellar Phoenix Macintosh Data Recovery, which is a complete data recovery solution. It is capable of recovering data from damaged, corrupted, deleted HFS+, HFSX and HFS volumes. It can carry out a thorough scan of the affected hard disk and extract every bit of data from it. It has an interactive user interface and provides full graphical support that allows you to quickly and easily recover data.

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The iPad and MacBook Compared

Many people have considered buying an iPad instead of a MacBook. In fact my uncle did just that. The iPad suited his needs fine and he decided he didn’t need the MacBook. While the iPad might be able to replace a MacBook for some, it might not for others. Read on to find out the main differences and similarities between the two.

One is a Tablet, One is a Laptop

Of course, the biggest difference is the form factor. The form factor controls the way you use each device. The iPad is a smaller, lighter tablet (like a giant iPod Touch) and the MacBook is a heavier laptop available in various sizes and configurations. With that difference comes more flexibility for the MacBook. The MacBook has ports (ie. USB, ethernet, etc) for connecting devices while the iPad does not. That’s not to say you can’t connect anything to the iPad, but you can connect a lot more to a laptop.

Being a laptop the MacBook has a real keyboard. The iPad has a touch keyboard, but you can use a bluetooth keyboard or connect a USB keyboard via the camera connector kit.

Price and Storage

There other big differences between a MacBook and an iPad are price and storage space. The iPad starts at $499, while a MacBook starts at $999. That is a big difference.

However, that $499 for an iPad only gets you 16GB of storage, while the $999 MacBook will get you 250GB of storage. Again, a big difference. If you want to carry around a lot of music and a lot of video you need to consider the 64GB iPad model, or for a few hundred dollars more a MacBook.

Applications and Software

Both the MacBook and the iPad can run a lot of different applications. The biggest difference is you can only add apps to the iPad with Apple’s App Store (unless you jailbreak, which is another story). Since you can only use the App Store, you are limited in what goes on your iPad by Apple’s app approval process. If Apple says no, you can’t put it on your iPad.

The MacBook, on the other hand, can have any Mac compatible application on it. If you can find it on the internet and it is compatible you can install it.

While the iPad is great and can do almost anything Mac apps can, there are some things it cannot do. You cannot do professional graphics or movie editing on the iPad. You'll want the processing power of a MacBook for that.

Internet Access

Both the iPad and MacBook can connect to the Internet wireless and send email as long as you have a connection. The biggest difference when it comes to the Internet is the 3G model of the iPad. While you can purchase devices that let you have Internet anywhere on the MacBook, you can purchase an iPad with 3G internet built in. All you have to do is sign up for a data plan and you can take the iPad on the go and have Internet anywhere.

Expandibility

If you like being able to install more memory into your computer the iPad is not for you. You are stuck with what it comes with. The MacBook, on the other hand, can be expanded with more memory as you outgrow what it came with and need more power. One of the best ways to speed up a MacBook is to add more memory. With that said, the iPad apps are designed to work with the iPad so speed and power should not be an issue.

Both the iPad and MacBook are great machines. What you want to do with them should be the deciding factor in which one you buy. But if you have the cash, just buy both!

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How to Delete Cache on Your Mac

If you own a house, you’ve probably had it sprayed for termites. If you have a dog, it probably wears a flea collar. If you have a car, you regularly have the oil changed. If you do what your doctor tells you, you go in once a year for a checkup. You do these things to prevent problems, catch problems early, and deal with problems as (or before) they arise, hopefully finding small problems and fixing them before they become even bigger ones. You need to take that same kind of care with your computer. In this article, you’ll learn how to delete the Library cache to avoid future problems, or to fix a corrupt cache.

A cache is where OS X stores data it needs to access often (such as extensions and icons). Storing data in cache makes your Mac run faster because it can obtain the data it needs quickly. Sometimes the cache gets corrupt, though, because of software updates, conflicts, and unexpected quits, and this can cause problems. You should delete the library cache occasionally to maintain your Mac’s performance.

You might experience application or system crashes or see seemingly random problems that don’t seem to be caused by anything in particular at all. This could be caused by a corrupt library cache. To prevent the cache from becoming corrupt, you should delete everything in the Caches folders once a month, about the same time you run the file system checker mentioned in a previous article.

Here’s how to clean your caches:

1. Choose Users>your user name>Library>Caches.

2. From the Menu bar, choose Edit>Select All.

3. Drag all of the items to the Trash.

4. From the Macintosh HD, choose Library>Caches.

5. Choose Edit>Select All, and drag the items to the Trash. You’ll be required to type in an administrator’s password.

6.   Restart your Mac.

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Can You Run OS X on a Netbook?

Compared to PCs, Apple Macs are expensive - but do you have to splash out $600+ for a bottom of the range Mac when certain netbooks are available that can run OS X for much less than this price?

Get Your Own Cheap Mac

Mac OS X is a superb operating system, offering a unique and memorable user experience.

Of course, getting a Mac is another matter entirely – they can be quite expensive to purchase new, with the cheapest model, the Mac Mini, costing around $650. You could even pay $3000 for a top of the range model.

What you may not know, however, is that OS X is an incredibly flexible operating system that can run on a variety of different hardware architectures. This is a development that has only been the case since Apple discarded the Power PC architecture in favour of Intel processors and chipsets in 2006.

A result of this has been a small sub-section of Mac users installing the OS on non-Mac hardware, such as PCs, laptops and netbooks.

A Brief History of the Intel Hackintosh

Ever since Apple announced its move to developing a new version of OS X to run on Intel chipsets, hackers (that is in the traditional, positive sense of the word) and developers have been looking for ways to alter the operating system in order to get it to run on non-supported hardware [LINK].

This is made difficult by Mac OS X being setup to only run on registered components – however thanks to the fact that OS X is developed from UNIX (just as the various Linux distros are) the OS can be reconfigured to run on a variety of CPU and motherboard combinations.

In fact it is now possible to run Mac OS X on AMD powered devices!

Can I Install OS X on a Netbook?

The plain answer to this question is “yes” – however it won’t be as easy as you think. Simply buying Mac OS X discs and inserting them into your netbook’s external DVD drive won’t allow you to install the operating system.

In order to do this, you will need to look for specific builds of the operating system designed for your particular device.

You should also note that while it is possible to install OS X on a netbook, it is a breach of the use of OS X as per Apple’s licence. Some commentators have suggested sticking an Apple logo on your chosen hardware may circumvent this.

To get started with installing Mac OS X on your netbook, you should visit the OS X Project where excellent information can be found in the OS X Project Wiki and help and support can be found at the InsanselyMac forums.

Netbooks Capable of Running OS X

Brighthub isn’t the place for a definitive list of netbooks capable of running OS X – this is a regularly changing environment, and as more netbooks are released it is going to continue changing.

However as a rule of thumb, you would be looking at the greatest success with an Asus Eee PC 900A, 901, 1000H, 1000HD and 1000HE, a Dell Mini 10v (1011), Dell Mini 9, HP Compaq Mini 700, HP Mini 1000, MSI Wind U100/123, Samsung N310 and the Samsung NC10.

This isn’t to say that other netbooks will not work，but these devices represent the best total level of hardware compatibility.

If you’re planning to install OS X on your netbook, take your time to research all of the available options.

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Rhythm NewMedia Raises Another $10 Million For Its Premium Mobile Video Ad Network

From the barrage of Apple’s iAds to Google’s accretion of AdMob a year ago, it’s appealing bright that the abutting borderland of announcement is mobile. And today, accession adaptable announcement aggregation alleged Rhythm NewMedia has landed a big fresh annular of funding. The ad arrangement is announcement that it’s aloft a $10 actor Series C annular led by QuestMark Partners, with accord from absolute investors LightSpeed Venture Partners, Morgenthaler Ventures, and Rembrandt Venture Partners.

You may not accept heard of Rhythm NewMedia, but the aggregation has some above audience — in fact, it alone works with top brands both on the announcement and publishing ancillary of things, and has formed with over 100 Fortune 500 companies this year. Publishers accommodate CBS and Fox; advertisers accommodate Best Buy and FedEx, and Rhythm NewMedia CEO Ujjal Kohli says that the aggregation doesn’t accord with longtail agreeable at all. Best of Rhythm’s business revolves about its video ad network, which is amenable for best of the pre-roll alternate video ads that you see on iOS and Android applications.

So what does that mean? Oftentimes video-centric applications from above publishers, like the TV networks for example, affection brief-pre cycle ads in advanced of video content. The ads served by Rhythm are alternate in the faculty that users can tap on article during this pre-roll ad to appointment accession website, or appearance a best video blow (like a cine trailer). Kohli says that, like Apple’s iAds, all of these alternate video ads accumulate users aural the app they’re using, which agency they’re one tap abroad from accepting aback to the agreeable they were examination originally. In accession to its video ads, Rhythm is additionally amenable for some web ads, including some of the full-page ads you see in photo slideshows on ample administrator sites.

Rhythm says that its adaptable video ad arrangement was averaging 425 actor impressions a ages in the third quarter, which was a 30% jump from Q2. The aggregation has been about aback 2005 and has aloft a whopping $37 actor aback then, including this fresh round. Obviously adaptable video ads weren’t about as able aback back Rhythm aboriginal started as they are now — Kohli says that the aggregation was ”a bit early”, but that things accept taken off aback the barrage of the iPhone.

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Mac Search Options

When Searching a file or data in Mac OS X does not have to be done with Spotlight; there are also many other search tools available in most Mac applications. Here I will explain the different search options available in Mac OS X and in the common programs that come with the operating system.

Spotlight & Finder

Spotlight allows you to search files on hard drives which have been indexed. You can search files from the Finder in three ways:

(1) Use the search box on the Finder toolbar.

(2) Use the Spotlight options at top right side of the Mac OS X menu bar.

(3) Use the keyboard command Cmd-F to open a Finder search window.

When you enter a search keyword in the Finder or Spotlight text box, the search results will come up immediately below the search box. If the desired file is shown, just double-click on the file name to open it.

Spotlight & Mac OS X Applications

Spotlight also allows you to search songs in iTunes, email messages in Apple Mail, addresses in Address Book and for other similar functions in Mac OS X programs.

When a word is searched in a Spotlight application, results come up immediately. Some programs even use more than one function of Spotlight. For example Safari uses Spotlight for searching RSS feeds, browsing history and bookmarks.

Some programs do not use Spotlight inside the program but they give ways to highlight a document so that the files could be easily searched with global Spotlight searches. Some programs let you select keywords, which can be used for Spotlight searches later.

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Apple Web Stores Down Across Europe – Price Cuts, Promotions Coming?

All over Europe, localized Apple’s online retail stores have recently gone down, which is almost always a sign of impending changes. Obviously, there are no new products bound for the stores, so this means that there are likely pricing changes ahead, possibly in tandem with holiday offers and other promotions.

The Apple Store in the US and other parts of the world functions as normal, but key stores in Europe, including UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy are currently unavailable.

We’ll update this post when the stores come back up, so stay tuned for now.

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10 tips for new Mac users

Being the sort of guy who likes to use keyboard shortcuts rather than having to reach for the mouse all the time, I felt a bit hostile once I got my new Macbook Pro. I knew how to do task X or Y on Windows with a few keystrokes, but having moved to Mac OS X (read 10 not X, as I made the mistake!), I found myself feeling annoyed that I didn't know my way around the OS smoothly.

So I searched the Internet to find out about some of the more obscure shortcuts. Below I've listed and explained some shortcuts that a new Mac user, especially those coming from a Windows environment, may not be aware of. It's definitely made my life easier, hopefully you're a new mac user, these will be of use.

1. Forward Delete On a Windows computer, the Backspace key deletes from right to left, where as the Delete key is used to delete from left to right (i.e. forward delete). But on a mac, there is no delete key (at least not the MBP). So at first I found myself clicking everywhere on emails to delete! So the solution: Fn+Delete. Simple!

2. Expose with F9 I found it annoying that I had to click Fn+F9 to bring Expose up. If I clicked F9, it would change the keyboard light intensity. So, the hardware F9 and the sofware F9 have to be swapped. This is how: Go to System Preferences > Keyboard and Mouse, click the Keyboard tab and check the box that says "Use the F1-F12 keys to control software features". Now when you press F9, it will bring Expose and when you press Fn+F9 it will change the keyboard light intensity. This is the same for the other keys like volume and display brightness. For example, the volume increase is situated on F5, which is used as the refresh button in browsers in Windows. By ticking the box mentioned above, you can use F5 to refresh you browser now!

3. Right Click Windows users love their right click button! It just doesn't make sense to have a computer without it! Well... Macs don't! They have what is called a contextual menu, and it is evoked by control clicking. Now there's two things you can do: First one works in Firefox (I couldn't get it to work in other programs or in Finder). All you do is click and hold and very soon the contextual menu appeares. You can do that anywhere: links, tabs, bookmarks, etc. Other method, which works everywhere is done as follows. First, go to System Preference > Keyboard and Mouse. Go to the Trackpad tab (assuming MBP) and click the "Tap trackpad using two fingers for secondary click". Now if you two-finger-click on the trackpad, the right click menu appears! So convenient, specially when combined with two finger scrolling.

4. Tab key Again, whenever I faced a dialog box with buttons, I used the tab key to navigate between the buttons. On a webpage, this was also true. On a mac, you'll probably get confused, as the tab key doesn't do that! Again, head over to System Preferences > Keyboard and Mouse, then go to the Keyboard Shortcuts tab and click the radio button at the end saying "All controls". Now you can use tab to move around just like windows! Still one thing left... say you have the shutdown dialog box and you use the tab key to navigate to Sleep, if you press Enter, it will shutdown, even though the blue highlight is around the Sleep button. You have to press the Spacebar instead! Confusing at first!

5. Shutdown shortcut Speaking of the shutdown dialog, you can bring it up using Control+eject. In Windows I used Win Key+U, then U again.

6. Maximise button and what it does So you press the green maximise button, but it doesn't maximise? Well, the button only maximises as much is neccessary. So, say you are reading a PDF document. If you zoom in on your document and then press maximise, you will see that the window will become large enough to hold the whole document. And if you zoom out and press the green button again, it will shrink to fit it. Again, different to Windows and needs some getting used to!

7. Alternative to minmise We saw what the maximise button does, what about the minimise button? Well, it "sucks" (as I like to call it) the document to the dock. What is the point of minimising? To clear your screen, to get rid of clutter. So, you can try these two alternatives depending on the need. Either press F11 to see the desktop, or press Command+H to hide the current window, which is what I tend to do.

8. Moving menu bar icons In Windows you can't move the task bar icons (or I don't know how), but on Mac, you can Command click them and move them around. Neat!

9. No Ctrl+Al+Delete ? I always clicked that well known combination to see my RAM and network usage and see what applications are running. On the Mac, go to Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor. Also, you can click Option+Command+Esc to bring up the Force Quit menu, if you need to quit any application that is not responding.

10. Cool shortcut combo To finish off, I'l give a cool (relatively) shortcut combination. Clicking Control+Option+Command+8 will turn the screen in some sort of high contrast mode, but more like an X-ray screen! Try it, it's fun! Hopefully, at least there has been one tip that has been useful to you. Please share other tips and tricks that you know in the comments. It is always interesting to learn new things.

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Apple's Next Big Strategic Opportunity Could Be Mobile Payments

When an analyst asked Steve Jobs during Apple's aftermost balance alarm what he affairs to do with Apple's $50 billion in cash, he replied that he wants to accumulate Apple's “powder dry” in case “one or added cardinal opportunities . . . appear along.” Speculation started anon about who Apple could shop for with all that cash: Facebook, Sony, Adobe?

But Apple never makes huge acquisitions. It tends to accomplish abate aptitude and technology acquisitions instead.

Apple's accounted absorption in adaptable payments startup BOKU would abatement into that pattern. The actuality that it is in M&A discussions with BOKU doesn’t beggarly a accord is activity to happen, but it does beggarly that Apple is actual absorbed in adaptable payments.

Whether it builds or buys, or does a little bit of both, adaptable payments could be a huge befalling for Apple aural the abutting few years.

Imagine if your iPhone became your wallet? The dream of axis adaptable phones into wallets has been pursued for a continued time by abounding companies, but Apple is in a different position to accomplish adaptable payments added mainstream. Apple already handles payments actual able-bodied through iTunes, which boasts 160 actor alive acclaim agenda accounts. PayPal alone has 90 million.

Payments will alpha with agenda goods—songs, movies, apps and in-app purchases. Apple already does all of this today through iTunes, which is one of the best micro-transaction accession systems around. What if you could allegation those micro-transactions to your buzz bill aloof as calmly as you could to your acclaim card?

Then, it would be alike easier for Apple to advertise apps, songs, and movies through iTunes, abnormally to adolescent barter or those in developing countries who may not accept a acclaim card. (BOKU’s backbone is those carrier relationships).

Over time, those payments could advance from agenda and basic appurtenances to real-world purchases. Apple is not cerebration about abacus a near-field communications (NFC) dent into the abutting iPhone for nothing. The added bodies use their iPhones to absolutely acquirement goods, the added basal it will become.

Would Apple anytime booty the abutting analytic footfall and become payments processor itself? If it did that, it would be able to cut out the carriers from the adaptable payments equation. Swap the carrier bill with iTunes, and those fees the carriers allegation to action micro-payments go away. Apple can alpha charging those fees instead or canyon the accumulation forth to their iPhone-toting consumers, who will again be able to absorb added on being in the iTunes abundance and elsewhere. Your iPhone could be your wallet: Never leave home after it.