Following on from last week, one of our good readers pointed a few more shortcuts. Although we’ve covered these before on Macstarter, I’ll forgive myself for repeating these again. So, here goes. The cmd + TAB shortcut is something I can’t live without. In all honesty, the last time I switched from one program to another using a mouse would be years ago. So, pressing cmd + TAB is a great way to bring up all your open programs. But something I don’t normally do (which [...]

By all accounts, at the start of March, Apple are going to start the world wide frenzy that is called “a new iPad”. Yes, the iPad 3 should be introduced to the public. Will you be buying one? My iPad 1 was sold, just before the iPad 2 came out. I bought an iPad 2, and believe me folks, I have not been as impressed by a device as I was by this iPad. I’ve filmed on it, edited those movies. I’ve composed music on [...]

I’ve been a fan of Alfred ever since it was released. It’s now taken over my use of Spotlight, and some other “launcher” apps I’ve been accustomed to over the years. With the new update (which puts it now at Alfred 1.1) has brought with it some features that are going to knock this app up a few notches in my must-have list to got-to-have status. I have been a sufferer of RSI for many years now. For any readers out there who have suffered [...]

Since the release of Lion, I’ve loved using my Mac even more than normal. When OS X arrived just over a decade ago, I remember that feeling of using something new. Not shiny new, but radical new. A dock. Juicy icons. New programs and Apps. It was a really exciting time to be a nerd – and it felt like we were using computers for the first time all over again. Today, Apple announced the new OS X to the family, named Mountain Lion. Now, [...]

For this week’s advice, I thought it would be good to get a few Finder shortcuts out there. I’m the world’s biggest shortcut fan. If I could do away with the trackpad / mouse altogether I would, although I know that wouldn’t be practical for everything. But certainly, opening, closing of folders and files doesn’t ever need you to let go of your keyboard. So here’s the lowdown. cmd + O will open up any folder or file. cmd + W will close an open [...]

With Dropbox, iCloud and other cloud services, you’d think that we’d gone past the point of worrying about our files and backups. Obviously that’s not the case, because external hard drives still sell by the millions. Until cloud services can cope with hundreds of gigabytes worth of data at a time, our Music, Photos and files cannot be fully backed up online. More than that, backing up home movies and photos can take forever online, whereas it only takes minutes on a hard drive. When [...]

When you buy a Mac, regardless of how big or small it is, you are joining a group of people who share a love of Apple. Maybe that’s overstating it a little, but as far as I can tell, buying a Mac brings with it a certain amount of pride. One of the great things about owning a Mac, aside from how good they are to use, is that they are re-sellable. You’ll only have to visit eBay, Craiglist or other similar sites to realise [...]

I love my iPhone. I didn’t line up for mine, I don’t have a name for it, and I don’t wave it in the air when I walk down the street. But I love my iPhone. I still use my 3GS model every single day. It wakes me up, and buzzes every time I receive an email. Over the last few months, I noticed that the battery life was less than brilliant. Now, I’ll accept that my old phone needed charging once a week, but [...]

You know I’m a great fan of the alt / option button. It’s the one key on my keyboard which I never underestimate. It can do just about anything. For this week’s advice of the week, try clicking the Apple logo on your Menubar. From there you’ll be able to log out of restart. But now press your alt / option key and you’ll notice that now you’ll be able to do an instant restart / logout without a dialog window getting in your way.

I’ve made no secret for my love of full screen apps. Some apps (GarageBand, iMovie, Mail) just rock in full screen mode. Other Apps, don’t really work for me at all. As well as not being able to get to the desktop from full screen apps (hence my love of Yoink). The other thing which used to get on my nerves seemed to be the fact while you’re using a full screen app, you couldn’t see the dock. This would mean that you would have [...]