Mac OS X

Upgraded to Mac OS X Lion from Snow Leopard

Posted on Oct 21 2011 by Gerry Comments: None yet Filed under: Mac OS X

I’m finally found some time to buy the Mac OS X Lion upgrade and download (it’s a 3.5GB download!) it this week. After several hours of waiting for the download to finish and doing the upgrade in less than an hour, the upgrade was mostly uneventful and went smoothly.

One thing that stands out when I start using Mac OS X Lion? — it’s the need to “reprogram” my fingers to use the new scroll-up/scroll-down gestures! It took some getting used to but in the end it feels more “right”. Although, I still have to adjust to it when I use a computer mouse.

How to verify your Apple support download files

Posted on Jun 29 2011 by Gerry Comments: 1 comment Filed under: updates, verification, Mac OS X

If you have a computer running Mac OS X, chances are you have downloaded files from the Apple support web site. You can actually verify the integrity of these support files using a simple script.

You have two options on how to update your Mac OS X. The first option is using the Software Update program accessible via the Apple icon. The second option is by downloading the updates via the Apple Support download site. I have actually resorted to the second option a number of times because of errors I get using the Software Update program.

Free MS Office alternative for Mac OS X

Posted on Jun 22 2011 by Gerry Comments: None yet Filed under: LibreOffice, Mac OS X

If you’ve just bought a Mac computer and you find yourself needing a document editor, spreadsheet and presentation software that is compatible with the MS Office software then you’re in luck. You can actually download, install and use on your Mac for free (as in free beer) an alternative to the expensive MS Office software.

It’s called LibreOffice. It offers the same document editing, spreadsheet, presentation and even drawing and database features you’d normally need. Besides being free, the good thing about it is that you can save files in MS Office formats to allow MS Office users to edit and read the files you created.

Stop tar from copying Mac OS X resource fork files

Posted on May 31 2011 by Gerry Comments: None yet Filed under: backup, resource fork, tar, Mac OS X

Resource fork files on Mac OS X isn’t something new. It’s been there way back from the old Mac operating system versions. These are files that starts its name with a ‘._’ followed by the original name of the file. It becomes a nuisance dealing with them when you have to copy files from a Mac to some other operating system like Ubuntu or Windows.

The problem becomes particularly evident when you want to backup files using the tar program on Mac OS X and you find out that using the exclude option doesn’t want to follow your request to stop copying those resource fork files.

Amazon Mac App Store »

First an Android App Store and now an Amazon Mac App Store, some of the software are even cheaper.

6:33 pmMay27,2011(260 days ago)

Mac OS X gets Safari and security updates

Posted on Apr 15 2011 by iGerry Comments: None yet Filed under: Mac OS X

Just got an update to Mac OS X today. The update comprises of two things and are both security related. The security fixes involves updating the Safari web browser and SSL certificate blacklisting. If you’re a Mac OS X user too, I suggest you get this update. Continue reading …

The 8-hour battery is enough reason to buy a MacBook

Posted on Jun 27 2010 by iGerry Comments: None yet Filed under: Apple, Mac OS X, macbook, Mac OS X

I’ve always bought other notebook brands in the past. This year I’ve decided to get a MacBook Pro for one special reason — I want to create an iPhone app. That means I would need to use Mac OS X because developing an iPhone mobile app. The other reason is so that I could test the web sites I create on the Mac. But not everyone needs the reasons I just mentioned to buy a Macbook.

Managing files with extended attributes on Mac OS X

Posted on Apr 18 2010 by iGerry Comments: 1 comment Filed under: extended attributes, file management, Mac OS X, Mac OS X

I’ve recently learned something on the Mac OS X — Extended Attributes. It’s those files where you’d see the at-sign (@) at the end of file permissions when you do an ‘ls -l‘ command on a Mac OS X terminal. I encountered them when I was trying to modify the firmware on my Android based Samsung Spica mobile phone. When I started manipulating the firmware files I’ve downloaded, I noticed that I would have extra files while creating a tar file.

New MacBook Pro with i5 and i7 Intel CPU

Posted on Apr 14 2010 by iGerry Comments: None yet Filed under: Apple, i5, i7, Intel, macbook pro, Mac OS X

Apple has launched today its upgraded MacBook Pro line of notebooks. One thing I noticed, besides the new i5 and i7 Intel CPU’s are the better battery performance of the new MacBook Pros (MBP). The new MBP now boasts of up to 10 hours between battery recharge for the 13-inch MacBook Pro and 8-9 hours for the 15-inch and 17-inch MBP. The previous MBP’s are rated only at 7 hours — which is already very good in my opinion. I’ve used other brands of notebooks and I can only get as much as 2 hours out of them.

Twitter client for Mac OS X called Nambu

Posted on Apr 4 2010 by iGerry Comments: None yet Filed under: Mac OS X, social networking, Twitter, Mac OS X

One of the first things, I was looking for when I started using Mac OS X is a Twitter client. I use Twitter a lot and find the Echofon plugin for Firefox acceptable. Now that I’ve much more display space on my notebook, I found a freely available Twitter client called Nambu which is currently undergoing version 2.0 beta.