Mac

When you purchase a new Mac, the system is set up to introduce you to OS X and accept new account information to start you off; however, if you purchase a used Mac then this may not be the case.

While owners selling a used Mac ought to format the system and include any restoration discs that came with it, sometimes this is not the case; they simply handed it over, with all their applications and settings still intact. Perhaps to make things easier they might create a new account for you, or change their passwords to their old account … Read more

The City of San Francisco won't be buying Apple computers anymore because the company pulled its products from a green-electronics certification registry, the Wall Street Journal reported today.

City officials told the Journal that employees of the city's 50 agencies won't be able to use city funds to buy Apple laptops or desktops because Apple removed those products from a voluntary registry of green electronics called EPEAT.

San Francisco's chief information officer, Jon Walton, told CNET that the change is due to an established policy requires the city purchase only EPEAT-certified desktops, laptops, and monitors. While … Read more

Just as Apple finished up OS X 10.8, aka Mountain Lion, Google said yesterday that its Web browser will stop supporting OS X 10.5, aka Leopard.

Leopard debuted in 2007 after a long gestation period. Apple's OS updates arrive more frequently these days -- roughly annually -- and Chrome comes even more frequently with a six-week update cycle.

"Please note, on Mac we now require 10.6 or higher, and this release will not be available if you are on 10.5 or lower," said Chrome team member Jason Kersey in a blog post yesterday … Read more

One easy way to save a little power and thereby help prolong battery life in MacBook systems is to sleep the display. Unlike a full system sleep that suspends all processing activities, display sleep only turns off the relatively power-hungry display while keeping the rest of the system working, which can extend the battery life during instances where you do not need to view the display. An example of this would be if you are waiting for a large file to download.

The options that are available for doing this depend on the system, and include a combination of hot … Read more

Apple has decided to stop participating in a major program devoted to the production of environmentally friendly products, reportedly saying that its design direction is no longer in line with the program's requirements.

Late last month, Apple told the nonprofit EPEAT group that the company would no longer submit its products for green certification from EPEAT and that it was pulling its currently certified products from the group's registry.

According to The Wall Street Journal's CIO Journal site, 39 of Apple's products had received EPEAT's green stamp of approval, including laptops such as the MacBook … Read more

Since installing the beta version of Messages (on day one), I have quite enjoyed its capability to sync with my iOS device messages as well as Google Chat, AIM, and other Jabber accounts. Today though, Messages did not open as expected.

At first I thought it had something to do with the beta version running out. Recently, Apple took down the capability to download Messages, so perhaps disabling the beta version was part of the plan all along. But, that doesn't really make sense without a clear replacement intact.

With Mountain Lion still being tested, I needed to find … Read more

The ratio of PCs sold to Macs sold has steadily been dropping and is now at 1985 levels, not too long after the first Mac debuted.

Creating a chart that reveals the ratio of PC to Mac sales since 1984, Asymco analyst Horace Dediu was able to track the rise and fall of that ratio over more than 25 years.

The ratio was about 20 to 1 in 1985 following the 1984 launch of the first Mac.

From there, the ratio went through some ups and downs for a good 10 years until around 1996, when it moved up to … Read more

Lock system manufacturer Maclocks has developed and released the first locking mechanism for the new MacBook with Retina Display, which offers a unique approach to securing the new systems since Apple didn't include a standard Kensington lock port.

Since laptops are portable they're easily stolen, and if you leave your MacBook unattended in a relatively busy place, you chance someone coming along and snatching it. Even if you have special LoJack software or Apple's Find My Mac feature enabled, it's better to prevent a system from being swiped in the first place.

If you don't … Read more

In the wake of the closure of MobileMe, Apple is again reminding people that it is pulling the plug on iWork.com at the end of the month as it transitions users to its iCloud service for online syncing and storage.

"As of July 31, 2012, you will no longer be able to access your documents on the iWork.com site or view them on the Web," the iWork.com site says. "We recommend that you sign in to iWork.com before July 31, 2012, and download all your documents to your computer. For detailed instructions on … Read more