MacMost: Video Podcast

The free GeekTool app allows you to put images, file content and shell script output right on your Desktop background. You can use this to customize your desktop in a variety of ways, such as showing current weather, news or financial information. Or, you can use it to monitor your Mac or systems on the Internet.

Game Center is a universal high score system provided by Apple that many app developers can use in their games. Once you extend your Apple ID to use Game Center, you can compete in high score leaderboards, challenge friends and register in-game achievements.

An often-requested feature of Mac Mail is the ability to tag messages with keywords. While full tagging ability isn't included in Mail, you can add colored flags to messages to help you organize them. You can even rename the flags to make them more useful. But for true tagging ability, you would need a third-party extension like MailTags.

When you download an app from the iOS or Mac App Stores, you have the ability to then go back to the store and leave a review. Here is how to get to the review form. There are also some general guidelines you may want to follow when writing a review. Make sure you review the app, not the App Store system. If the app isn't the one you wanted, don't review the app based on your misconception. Also take price into consideration and don't use the review process as a way to get support from the developer.

Creating useful spreadsheets is usually a matter of combining several techniques. In this tutorial, you'll learn how to create a table to hold a small database of information. Then, you'll create a second table to count the number of records that have certain criteria. Finally, you'll use the second table to create a pie chart. Each element updates automatically as new records are added or changed.

The latest version of Pixelmator introduces a handy new way to select part of an image. You can paint with a brush to add to or remove from a selection and cut out a person or object. You can then apply filters to that selection, or invert the selection to apply filters everywhere else.

Ruby is a popular programming language that comes installed on your Mac and can be accessed in the Terminal. You can use the Rub command line interpreter to run simple programs in a single line. You can also write more complex programs in a text file and run them. This gives you similar functionality to using BASIC on the Apple II.

Every computer uses DNS servers to translate domain names to numerical addresses that can be used to find web pages. You can use the default DNS provided by your ISP, or you can choose your own. Sometimes you will see speed and quality improvements by using a public DNS instead of the default. Learn how to set your DNS in System Preferences and learn a potential pitfall of doing so.

The Chrome browser is a good free alternative to Safari for Mac that is very similar in many respects. But it does offer some interesting features such as the incognito window, task manager, site information menu and Flash encapsulation. It is a good idea to have multiple browsers on your Mac and familiarize yourself with the features of each.

Google Maps has been around for a while and there are many advanced techniques that users may no know about. For instance, you can adjust routes to include more locations by simply dragging. You can show someone a map location by sending them a short URL. You can also get directions for public transportation, walking and biking.

You can create a chart in Numbers and then copy and paste it into a Pages or Keynote document. When you do so, the chart is linked and changes to the chart data in Numbers can be synced to your Pages or Keynote document. However, only data can be updated. Labels and the table itself cannot sync between apps, though copy and paste is a decent work-around.

Use Guided Access if you need to hand off your iOS device to a young child, and you want to keep them in a single app. This prevents them from accidentally exiting the app or putting the device to sleep. It can also be used to stop others from accessing more than one app on a device when it is used as a demonstration machine or kiosk.

Normal copy and paste of text will include the text font, style and other attributes. But if your intention is to just copy and paste the raw text, then you will want to learn how to use Paste and Match Style. You can use this in most apps, including Pages, TextEdit and Microsoft Word.

The next version of iOS seems to be a big leap forward in looks and features. In addition to a whole new look for many of the primary apps, we'll see new features in Photos, Camera, Weather, Safari and other apps. You will be able to access iCloud Keychain password, have better compatibly with future cars, and be able to share files with nearby iOS users without a network. iOS 7 will come out this fall, most likely at the same time as a new iPhone or iPad.

Here is what we know about Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks so far. We'll get new iBooks and Maps apps, and changes to Safari and Calendar. There will be better multiple screen support. The Finder will include tabs and tags. We can expect Mavericks in the fall, most likely through the Mac App Store.

At the Worldwide Developers Conference Apple announced new versions of both OS X and iOS. They also launched new MacBook Air laptops and Airport base stations. A new Mac Pro was shown with a whole new design. A new streaming music service called iTunes Radio was also announced. See some of the new features of the operating systems.

You can get and modify information about a file or folder with the Info window. You can also use the Inspector as a way to quickly look at information about any file or folder you select.

With the help of Siri on your iPhone, you can listen to and reply to text messages without ever looking at or touching your iPhone's screen. This can be useful when cycling or running, or just quicker than typing. Setting up your contacts correctly can help.

When you type a quote or apostrophe symbol on your Mac, it will usually automatically convert to the curly version. However, you can control when this happens on a per-app basis. You can also make exceptions to the process while typing. See examples in TextEdit, Pages and Mail.

You can come up with creative solutions using combinations of apps on your Mac. For instance, to scan documents with your MacBook's camera, you can use Photo Booth to take the pictures, and then Preview to flip them and convert them to a single PDF document. This could be a good alternative to using the copy machine while doing school research.