OS X 10.11.4 El Capitan Now Available To Download

As well as releasing the iOS 9.3 update Apple also released OS X 10.11.4 El Capitan, which brings a range of new features to Apple’s Mac’s.

The OS X 10.11.4 El Capitan software update is now available to download from the Mac App Store and the update also fixes a number of bugs and has a range of performance enhancements.

Here is what is included in the update:

• Adds the ability to passcode-protect notes containing personal data in Notes
• Adds the ability to sort notes alphabetically, by date created, or date modified in Notes
• Adds the ability to import Evernote files into Notes
• Adds support for sharing Live Photos between iOS and OS X via AirDrop and Messages
• Addresses an issue that may cause RAW images to open slowly in Photos
• Adds the ability for iBooks to store PDFs in iCloud, making them available across all your devices
• Fixes an issue that prevented loading Twitter t.co links in Safari
• Prevents JavaScript dialogs from blocking access to other webpages in Safari
• Fixes an issue that prevented the VIPs mailbox from working with Gmail accounts
• Fixes an issue that caused USB audio devices to disconnect
• Improves the compatibility and reliability of Apple USB-C Multiport Adapters

The new OS X 10.11.4 El Capitan software update is now available to download from the Mac App Store, you can find out more details at the link below.

File Cabinet Pro Offers Powerful File Management Features Directly from the OS X Menu Bar

Users needing easy to use, yet powerful file and cloud management features might want to take a look at Writes for All Inc.’s File Cabinet Pro, its powerful file manager for the OS X menubar. The app allows users to open, move, rename, tag, trash, copy and paste files, all from a popover window that appears from the menubar. File Cabinet Pro also allows users to copy files to their iCloud Drive without needing to open a window in Finder.

In addition to file management capabilities, the app also offers a built-in text editor, image viewer, PDF viewer, and media player. Document types supported include: txt, rtf, rtfd, png, bmp, mov, mp4 and many more.

Features:

• Create subdirectories in File Cabinet Pro
• Click into subdirectories and open documents
• Store files locally and in iCloud
• Drag and drop files to and from iCloud
• Tag files – Select files in File Cabinet Pro, right click, and then simply add or remove file tags from the control in the context menu
• Show in Finder
• Rename files
• Copy and paste files
• Trash files
• View items as icons or in columns
• Launch the application at login – You can have File Cabinet Pro automatically launch when you login to your Mac (optional feature, disabled by default)
• Built in lightweight text editor – Create and edit .txt, .rtf, and .rtfd files
• Built in lightweight image viewer/editor. Rotate images, crop images, and apply filters to images
• Built in media player – Watch video and play audio files
• PDF viewer
• Editable files support document versions

File Cabinet Pro for Mac OS X is $29.99, and is available from the App Tyrant website. [GET IT HERE]

How to bring Windows-like cut and paste functionality to Finder on the Mac.

One of the most apparent differences between Windows machines and Macs is the lack of a so-called “cut” option on the Mac. On Windows machines, users are used to seeing cut, copy, and paste, but on Macs there is no command called cut. Actually, similar functionality exists on a Mac, it’s just a little less straightforward than it is on Windows (ironically).

Instead, Apple likes to call its version move, which honestly makes more sense than cutif you ask me. Although move isn’t an option when you right click, and there isn’t your typical ⌘+X command for moving, it’s still really easy to pull off. In the video that follows, I’ll show you three different ways to use cut and paste in OS X’s Finder.

To use cut functionality on the OS X Finder, do the following:

Step 1: Right click on the item that you wish to cut and select Copy

Step 2: Locate the destination where you’d like to move the item, right click, and hold the Option (⌥) key on your keyboard, and the Paste Item Here option will change to Move Item here. Click Move Item Here.

You’ll notice the item is now moved and no longer appears in its original place.

You can also do the same thing with keyboard shortcuts. Just use ⌘+C to copy and then use ⌘+⌥+V to move the item to the new destination.

If you still finding yourself missing Windows’ contextual cut command, you can use a third-party utility to add it to the Finder. One such utility is called XtraFinder, and it’s available as a free download. It features an option to add Windows-like cut and paste functionality to the Finder’s menu.

To enable cut and paste with XtraFinder, install the package → click the menu bar icon → click Preferences → click Features → check the Cut & Paste box.

Apple patches missing /Users folder bug spawned by iTunes update.

That was fast. After updating their Macs to OS X 10.9.3, many users noticed that their /Users folder was gone. Actually, it was there, but somehow the OS update rendered the folder invisible. There were some 3rd party patches to fix it, but late yesterday Apple updated iTunes to version 11.2.1 and although Apple’s description of the update doesn’t mention the issue, details of the update on Apple’s support pages makes it clear that iTunes was the culprit.

If your /Users folder was invisible (or even if it wasn’t) apply the iTunes update and your folder will return.

The bug occurred on my MacBook Air, but didn’t show up on my Mac Pro. Applying the update fixed it on my laptop, and no reboot was required. The update is recommended for all Macs. You can find it on the Mac App Store or under Software Update in your Apple Menu.

Your Guide To Unlocking The Power Of Spotlight Search In OS X.

Any OS worth its salt will feature a search bar, because in this day and age, it is impractical to try and recall file locations through terabytes of data. Microsoft Windows’ built in search was easily replaced by the Google Quick Search which is made even more powerful with some power parameters. However, Mac OS X’s Spotlight Search has not attracted as much attention since its release in April 2005; possibly because the OS itself is easy to sort or perhaps people simply don’t care about it. Though, people really should care about Spotlight search, because it makes navigating the OS an art form; hardened Google search veterans will appreciate this even more. Let us walk you through how.

 

Navigation Primer

Activate using ⌘ + spacebar, or by clicking the magnifying glass. You can copy/move files directly from the search box and a ⌘ + click opens the highlighted file in finder. You can enter an app’s name here as a search string and launch it directly as well. In order to search the web, simply put in your required string in Spotlight and it will find you web links as well as wikipedia links based on the search string.

Boolean Operators

For those of us not familiar with Boolean operators, they are logical notations, think of them as a formal method of explaining something to a computer. You can search for an object using operators such as AND (for more than one string), OR (for either of the searched strings) and NOT (excluding items); all boolean strings must be in caps. For example, if I want to search my Mac for rock songs that do not contain the word music. I will simply search for:

rock NOT music

We can also make the search more specific by eliminating multiple strings in parentheses.

rock NOT (music OR Resume)

File Extensions

You can even search for specific file extensions, similar to Windows’ *.[file extension] search string, you can redo the above search by eliminating these .caf files that keep showing up and the results will be.

Rock NOT (classic OR .caf)

The same effect can be replicated using KIND, when you want to locate specific file types. Such as:

Rock kind:mp3

And it will return all rock tracks in mp3. If you wish to mix search strings, simply add ‘NOT’ before ‘kind:’ and you will exclude that file extension from your searches. You can even use ‘kind’ to search file types, such as ‘music’, ‘images’, ‘documents’, ‘text’, ‘docs’, markup’, etc.

Dates

You can even locate files using date ranges with operators like ‘created’ or ‘modified’ for those files you know you created, but can’t seem to locate yourself. Let us try with CVs.

CV created:1/1/2013-1/1/2014

For a search range of CVs between 1st Jan 2013 and 1st Jan 2014. You can give a specific date, or a simple string like ‘Today’ or ‘yesterday’.

Calculating

You can even use Spotlight search as a calculator, searching something as simple as 1+1 or even complex equations such as (sqrt(81))/3^2. You can look up simple words, if you jot them down in the search box (highlight to see, click to read in detail).

 

Searching Through Menus

This feature is unique, you can actually sift through the available menus of an open app. Getting you to search topics just as fast as it would get you to a file.  This sub spotlight can be accessed through the help button when an app is active and instead of taking you directly to the feature, it launches the menu where it can be accessed, complete with path.

So, that’s the searching part of Spotlight search resolved. Let us go over how to optimize search to suit your tastes.

Search Categories

Go to System Preferences > Spotlight

Here you will see a list of all indexed apps and folders and the order in which their results will appear. You can rearrange these files to an order that suits you and you can even eliminate some categories from showing up in search results by unchecking them here or by adding a document/file/folder/kind to the ‘privacy’ tab. You can change the default launch keyboard shortcut here as well.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Apart from the universal keyboard shortcuts mentioned at the start of this guide, there are other shortcuts that you can use to different ends. After you have searched your query, you can directly access your desired result through a series of commands.

⌘ + D: Quicklook term in the Dictionary app

⌘ + L: Actually View the term in the Dictionary app

⌘ + B: To do a web search of your term.

⌘ + R: To reveal a specific search item

⌘ + O or Return/enter: To open the top result

⌘ + I: To get its information from Finder.

Conclusion

There are other third-party solutions to help “optimize” search on  Mac, but it is important to understand the full potential of what you have before you move on to acquiring upgrades or mods. The spotlight search is full of potential and then some. This may not seem to be a critical feature, but it is a credit to just how functional Mac OS X gets in places you least expect. Know anything about spotlight we missed? Let us know in the comments.

Using Do Not Disturb in OS X Mavericks.

I’m a big fan of the Do Not Disturb (DND) feature in both iOS and OS X Mavericks. Every night at 10PM, DND turns on automatically, and I don’t hear any notifications and such until the next morning. Ah, precious silence!

This “how to” will walk you through the simple steps of turning on DND, and setting the different options for the feature. And don’t worry, we’ll do it very quietly, so as not to disturb anyone…

Accessing the Do Not Disturb Settings

To access the settings for DND, just click the Apple icon () in the upper left-hand corner of your Mac Desktop, and click “System Preferences…” Now, click on “Notifications.”

In the left pane you’ll see “Do Not Disturb.” Click on that.

As seen in the screenshot below, there are only a few options available here, but they are useful ones.

First, we have the option to turn on Do Not Disturb. You can set it to turn on at a set time, and then turn off at a set time. This is very handy if your bedroom also serves as your office. No more notifications going off in the middle of the night.

Also available is a checkbox you can check to turn on DND when you’re mirroring your Mac’s desktop to TVs and projectors. This will save you some embarrassment when you’re giving a presentation to the board of directors and your significant other sends you a “frisky” message via iMessage.

Finally, there are two options here for FaceTime calls. You can decide here whether or not to allow FaceTime calls through from “everyone,” just your “favorites,” or not at all. You can also decide whether to allow those calls through if they call a second time within three minutes.

Toggling DND Manually

If you find yourself in need of silence to work your way through a report, or a how to article, you can manually turn Do Not Disturb off by accessing Notification Center, (either click the three line Notification Center icon in the upper right-hand corner of your desktop, or swipe left with two fingers from the right edge of your trackpad), and pulling down to display the DND toggle switch. (As you can see, DND will automatically turn off the next day, in case you forget to do it yourself.)

An even faster way to toggle DND on or off is to hold down the option key on the keyboard and click the Notification Center icon, or set up a hotkey combo to do it in “System Preferences” -> “Keyboard” -> “Shortcuts.”

That’s all there is to it. With just a few clicks you can tell the rest of the world to screw off so you can get some work done. Or take a nap. Your call.

Source: MacTrast.

Mac users four times more likely to run latest OS than Windows users.

Some sums done by ComputerWorld show that Mac users are four times more likely to upgrade to the latest available version of the operating system than Windows users.

Microsoft has convinced just 11.6 percent of Windows users who acquired their system since 2001 and still actively use it to go online to migrate to the current edition of its operating system […]

Apple’s convinced 41.6 percent of Mac users who acquired their system since 2001 and still actively use them online to adopt the current edition of the OS.

A large part of it is cost, of course: Mavericks was a free upgrade, and previous upgrades have been priced far more competitively than Windows.

But Apple has also offered a simpler upgrade path, adding features rather than making major changes to the core user-interface. OS X also operates more efficiently, allowing Mavericks to run well on far older hardware than is the case for Windows 8.

Source: 9to5Mac.

Why I love Apple products, and am just a tiny bit embarrassed to be seen using them.

I love my Apple products. I’ve used Macs since day one. My desk right now has on it my MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iPad Air, Thunderbolt Display and iPhone. Oh, and an Apple Bluetooth keyboard and Magic Trackpad, of course.

My friends are convinced that I’m incapable of leaving the house without my iPad, and I have to confess that the evidence is on their side. My car has an iPhone dock so I can listen to music and podcasts. If I’m on a plane, train or tube, it’s a near-certainty that I’ll be using my iPad or listening to music on my iPhone – or both.

I love Apple hardware design. Sleek, minimalistic, beautiful. There aren’t that many other really attractive laptops out there, and most of the ones that are have essentially copied Apple’s designs …

 I love OS X and iOS. Not everything about them, of course: there are glitches and anoyances, and iOS in particular is showing its age a little with the lack of live data on the homescreen, but both Just Work. Windows 8 is pretty good, but just the other day helping a friend update her CV on her Windows laptop, I was reminded of just how many nice touches I take for granted in OS X.

I love the seamlessness of iCloud. Again, we all know it’s not perfect, but it’s still incredibly impressive that syncing is now something that happens, rather than something I have to do. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I can pick up any of my iDevices, and the same, up-to-the-minute information will be on each.

I also really like Apple as a company. The reason the products are so good is precisely because Apple has strong values around quality, attention to detail and refusal to compromise. I love the fact that Apple concentrates on doing a small number of things very well, and doesn’t do what most companies in its position would do and slap an Apple logo on everything from baseball caps to cars.

I love the fact that Apple supports its technology with real people. Admittedly not everyone lives within easy reach of an Apple Store, but for those who do, anyone can wander in, ask the dumbest question and get individual help, free of charge. Compare that to attempting to get help with a Windows laptop or Android phone, and there is just no comparison.

So why, then, would I feel even a tiny bit embarrassed to be seen using them? Three reasons …

I was in a certain well-known coffee store the other day, and I paused from what I was writing to look around. The first thing I noticed was that almost every single customer was using an electronic device, busily immersed in a smartphone, tablet or laptop. Second, out of around 30 devices in use, I think only three or four of them didn’t have an Apple logo. In central London, at least, it seems the default choice.

Perhaps I’m being snobbish, but I can remember when spotting someone else using a Mac was almost an event. We were the unusual ones, the ones who had given the matter more thought, and were prepared to step out of the mainstream and buy something that was, honestly, at the time, a bit eccentric. People would ask you why.

But hey, I can live with being one of the masses (for a certain demographic value of masses, anyway). The second reason is the fashionista thing.

Apple has a lot of discerning customers. People who are perfectly well aware of the alternatives, know full well how the prices of competitor products compare and have made a choice to pay a premium price for a superior product. The type of people you’d find reading 9to5Mac, in fact.

But even I have to agree with my Apple-ribbing friends that there are those … other type of Apple customers. The sheeples, as they are unkindly dubbed. The type of people who buy Apple because it’s expensive and fashionable, and because they have no clue what else is out there.

Perhaps worse than the fashionista, though, are the third reason: the fanbois.

Don’t misunderstand me: I don’t use the term to describe people who love Apple products. I’m one of those. By fanbois, I mean those who are so utterly fanatical about it that they will scream and shout and stamp their feet if anyone so much as dares to level the slightest hint of criticism at Apple, or to say anything even vaguely complimentary about Windows or Android.

I’d rather not be mistaken for a fashionista (though perhaps my dress sense saves me there). I would most definitely not like to be mistaken for a fanboi. It was in that coffee shop when I realised I might, to the casual observer, have given that impression. The wifi was hopeless, so when I needed to google something, I pushed aside my MacBook Air, and got out my iPad Air to do the search. At which point, with perfect timing, someone called me – on my iPhone. I did feel just a twinge of embarrassment about sitting at a coffee shop table simultaneously using three pieces of Apple technology.

I supposed I should just have been grateful I couldn’t yet be wearing an iWatch …

Source:  9to5Mac.

FaceTime Audio Coming to Macs With Next OS X Update.

The OS X 10.9.2 beta first distributed to developers this afternoon includes Apple’sFaceTime audio, a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) feature that was originally introduced to the iPhone with iOS 7. With FaceTime audio on both iOS and OS X, Apple users will be able to seamlessly call one another from any device. 

FaceTime audio is designed to allow users to initiate voice-only calls with other FaceTime users without turning on the accompanying video feed. Currently, Macs running Mavericks only have access to the standard FaceTime app, which bundles both video and audio. 

Users who are interested in voice-only communications on Macs have to resort to using third-party apps like Skype or switching to Messages, both of which allow for video chats and voice-only chats. 

FaceTime audio feature is “integrated deeply” into both the Messages and FaceTime apps, making voice communication between Apple users on any device easier than ever. With Messages, FaceTime, and FaceTime audio on iOS and OS X, Apple will have a complete communication system in place. 

With a simple way to answer telephone calls and chat requests from all devices, those in Apple’s ecosystem will have little reason to resort to alternative VoIP apps when communicating with other Apple users. FaceTime audio is also a high-quality VoIP choice, as it uses the AAC-ELD codec for Full-HD Voice. AAC-ELD is designed to provide CD-like audio quality for voice calls, delivering high speech and audio quality at a low coding delay. 

It is unknown when OS X 10.9.2 will be released to the general public, but OS X 10.9.1 was in development for just over a month before it was distributed earlier this week. While Apple has been known to remove beta features ahead of release, it is likely FaceTime audio will make it to end users as it is already available on iOS.

Alternatives to AirDrop between iPhone and Mac.

 Like a lot of you, one of the first things I did when I had both OS X Mavericksand iOS 7 (in beta form) on my devices was to try AirDrop. I mean, it’s been in OS X for a while and it was added to iOS 7, so of course you’re going to be able to zap files back and forth between your iPhone and Mac, right?

<crickets>

Yeah, that was a major disappointment, and something we’ll probably have to wait for Apple to add to the next versions of OS X and iOS. In the meantime, there are several third-party solutions you can use to give you the ability to “AirDrop” your files from a mobile device to your desktop.

DeskConnect (free)

Not only does it have a great price — free — but it also works very well. You’ll need to create a free account with DeskConnect, so apparently they’re using some sort of online caching of information being sent between your devices. On the iOS device, DeskConnect displays an easily understandable interface that has four buttons: send photo, send clipboard, send websites and send documents. Documents are stored for 30 days, so you’ll always have recourse if you sent something between devices and then accidentally deleted it. The share clipboard feature must be turned on (it’s not a default setting), but works great.

 Instashare (US$2.99 for OS X, free iOS app with ads or $0.99 without ads)

This is a solution that both Shawn “Doc Rock” Boyd and I use, since he turned me onto this pair of apps a while back. Installing Instashare on your Mac adds an AirDrop-like icon to your menu bar. Click on that icon to bring up a blank window upon which you can drop files and folders, and they’re immediately sent to your “Trusted Devices.” However, the app was supposed to allow sending of clipped text between devices, and I could never get that to work… and the online help files are less than helpful.

Pastebot ($3.99 for iOS, free Mac companion app)

Pastebot’s been out for a while, more as a “clipboard manager” for iOS than anything else. However, developer Tapbots created an OS X companion app called Pastebot Sync that runs in the background on your Mac and lets you send text and images back and forth between devices. Neither of the Pastebot apps has been updated lately, but they both still work with no issues.

Source: TUAW.