Dia command line not working I've got a problem with using Dia from the command line on OSX 10.7.4. I downloaded and installed the OS X dmg from http://dia-installer.de/download/macosx.html I've been using it to create graphics for a paper and absolutely love it.

I'm using a makefile to call pdflatex, bibtex, and R so that that it will build everything from scratch if need be, but can't get Dia's command line to work.

I want to use the command line with -e and -t to export the graphics to a specific directory so that pdflatex can put them in the pdf. (http://dia-installer.de/doc/en/re01.html)

The problem that I'm running into is that anytime I call it from the terminal, it brings up the GUI. Even if I give move to /Applications/Dia.app/Content/Resources/bin/ and use the command "./dia -v". It gives me a bunch of errors about "Input method" and then shows the GUI.

I looked on the Dia FAQ and it has a lot of information for the Windows command line, but nothing for OS X.

I'm hoping that someone here has run into this before and knows how to get it to work.

On the Mac, dia (specifically /Applications/Dia.app/Content/Resources/bin/dia) is just a shell script wrapper to the compiled dia-bin binary.  It sets a number of environmental variables, and then finishes by executing Dia as a GUI:

exec "$CWD/dia-bin" --integrated

You can make a copy (e.g. cp -p dia dia-cmd) and edit that last line in dia-cmd to become:

"$CWD/dia-bin" $@

and then you can use it as dia-cmd within the terminal.

Note:  I found that for my locale (en_US.UTF-8), at least, running dia-cmd in the terminal was way too chatty about trying to determine the correct locale, spewing ignorable warnings:

Warning: AppleCollationOrder setting not found, using AppleLocale.
Setting Language: en.UTF8

(process:33043): Gdk-WARNING **: locale not supported by C library

(process:33043): Gtk-WARNING **: Locale not supported by C library.
    Using the fallback 'C' locale.

You can eliminate that by also commenting-out those lines in dia-cmd, and manually forcing the correct locale:

## LANGSTR=`defaults read .GlobalPreferences AppleCollationOrder 2>/dev/null`
## if [ "x$LANGSTR" == "x" ]
## then
##    echo "Warning: AppleCollationOrder setting not found, using AppleLocale." 1>&2
##    LANGSTR=`defaults read .GlobalPreferences AppleLocale 2>/dev/null | \
##            sed 's/_.*//'`
## fi

# NOTE: Have to add ".UTF-8" to the LANG since omitting causes Dia
#       to crash on startup in locale_from_utf8().
## export LANG="$LANGSTR.UTF8"
 export LANG="en_US.UTF-8"
## echo "Setting Language: $LANG" 1>&2

Voila:

MYMACHINE:~ lars$ /Applications/Dia.app/Contents/Resources/bin/dia-cmd -v
Dia version 0.97.2, compiled 18:51:13 Mar 17 2012

and if you still are running into issues, check this blog link
Dia Diagram Mac OSX Yosemite Fix


Connecting Macbook Air to Sony HDTV via HDMI I own an apple Macbook Air early 2015 version, I am not able to connect it to my Sony HDTV through mini DP to HDMI converter. Can somebody Help?

The Macbook Air (2015) edition has a thunderbolt output. You'll need a adapter from Thunderbolt to HDMI to get this working.

Also:

did you checked the HDMI cable if this one is working
Is the channel set properly on your Sony TV?


How to highlight cells based on another cell's value in Excel 2011 How do I use conditional formatting to highlight a cell in one column based on the value of another cell in another column?

Case in point, I'm running some tests right now. Based on input data into our server, we expect certain output from the server. I've manually calculated and generated expected output from this same set of input to compare against what the server is generating.

What I want to do is compare all of my results against what the server generated and highlight the cells that don't match. I'm using Conditional Formatting to do this, however, I can't figure out what to do within the Conditional Formatting feature to compare values from column XYZ with values from column ABC and highlight the cells in XYZ where they don't match. The number of values in both columns are the same so we can compare without fearing comparing 123 against an empty cell.

EDIT: Thanks for the answers thus far.  What I'm trying to do is match results line by line so it should look something like the attached screenshot.

You need to use a rule with a formula to determine the format. Select the column of data, and assuming the top cell in the selection is A1, create a new conditional format with a formula and enter

=iserror(match(A1,$Z$1:$Z$1000,0))

Note that there are no $ signs around the A1 reference! Then select a format and apply this conditional format to A1:A1000.

Explanation:

The Match() function tries to find the value of cell A1 in the range Z1:Z1000.
If there is a match, the function will return a number. If there is no match, the function will return an error.
The outer ISError() function will return TRUE if the Match returns an error and the conditional format will be applied.

By not using $ signs, the conditional format can be applied to a whole range in column A and will always evaluate the current row.

Say your values are in column B and start in B3, you would need to select cell B3 and enterB3 instead of A1 into the formula.

Here is a screenshot of a data sample where the conditional format is applied to column A, checking column C for matching values anywhere in C2 to C11, not just on the same row.

Select second column (X) and use the following formula:

=$A2<>$X2


How do I regain all unallocated disk space to add it to macOS after removing bootcamp partition? I accidentally erased my Windows 10 bootcamp partition using Disk Utility by reformatting it to MS DOS FAT.  I then tried to restore it with a Winclone backup which failed.  So I finally booted from and external drive with OS X El Capitan and used terminal and a    get remove

Here is where I am at -- any assistance would be greatly appreciated:

I would just like to add disk0 index 4 to index 2
Thx

OK, I managed to solve the problem and hence answer my own question.  BTW, I'm not a fan of the Disk Utility GUI version included with OS X El Capitan - too easy to commit to things without some cautionary dialogues IMO.  That being said, I was able to reformat and reclaim the missing ex-bootcamp partition by simply using Disk Utility to reduce -- yes reduce -- the size of the OS X partition slightly ~ 5GB in this case.  After waiting about 5 minutes for the changes to be completed, here is the output:


Change MAC address in OS X Yosemite I usually changed my MAC address with the following commands:

# Get a New MAC Address
openssl rand -hex 6 | sed 's/\(..\)/\1:/g; s/.$//'
# Changing the MAC Address
sudo ifconfig en0 ether d4:33:a3:ed:f2:12

When I enter:

ifconfig en0 |grep ether

I still get the old MAC address :( - Who can help? I would love to have a script or system to automatically change it on system boot.

One possible problem is that randomly generated MACs will fail half the time. The first byte of a MAC address needs to be even (e.g. end in 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, A, C, E).

So, for example, 3b:92:22:cf:55:7e wouldn't work because '3b' is odd. See Wikipedia's MAC address article for the details (even = unicast, odd = multicast).

To avoid this problem, you can slightly edit your random-MAC sed command to force the second nibble to 0.

openssl rand -hex 6 | sed 's/\(..\)/\1:/g; s/./0/2; s/.$//'

Combining this with hrbrmstr's answer worked for me:

sudo /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Resources/airport --disassociate
sudo ifconfig en0 ether $(openssl rand -hex 6 | sed 's/\(..\)/\1:/g; s/./0/2; s/.$//')
networksetup -detectnewhardware

This works!
Steps:

Get the MAC address of your Apple TV and write it down.  It's found in the Network Settings.

Get the MAC address of your MacBook (Yosemite OS version).  Type "ifconfig" in a terminal window.  It will be in the "En0" section.

Cut/Paste the following (replacing the X's with your Apple TV MAC address) into a teminal window:

change MAC OSX to the Apple TV MAC
sudo /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Resources/airport -z
sudo ifconfig en0 ether XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
networksetup -detectnewhardware

Enter your password if prompted and repeat step 3, if necessary**

Reconnect to the hotel wireless with your MAC (not Apple TV) and accept the conditions of service.

Cut/paste the following into the terminal window (replace the Y's with your MAC OSX MAC address)

change MAC address back to original
sudo /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Resources/airport -z
sudo ifconfig en0 ether YY:YY:YY:YY:YY:YY
networksetup -detectnewhardware

Connect to the hotel wireless with your Apple TV.


How do fix Safari extensions on Safari 12? Since installing Safari 12, I've been unable to get my extensions working. In particular I have no functioning ad blocker, and the primary extension I use, Pocket, (rally the only reason I use Safari at all) doesn't seem to work. In order to prevent Safari from showing repeated warnings each time I launch it, I've cleared out my extensions and emptied ~/Library/Safari/Extensions/.

How do I get and ad blocker and Pocket working with Safari 12?

The latest Safari update (12.0, Sept 17, 2018) turns off some and and stops supporting other extensions.

I don't see Pocket on Apple's new list of supported Safari Extensions (https://itunes.apple.com/us/story/id1377753262). That might be why Pocket now recommends that Mac users just use their Mac app: https://help.getpocket.com/article/1042-using-pocket-for-safari

Pocket may update their extension such that Apple starts supporting it again. Until then, there might be a javascript bookmark(let) for saving items to Pocket (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT4550) or a Pocket email address to which you can send items to your account (https://getpocket.com/add/).

Update: Some unsupported extensions work again in Safari 12. E.g.,

The "Zotero Connector" extension for Safari (https://www.zotero.org/download/) now works for me even though—as I write this—it does not show up in Safari's list of supported extensions in the Mac App Store (https://itunes.apple.com/us/story/id1377753262).

I loaded Pocket from here and it seems to work with Safari. I use the ad blocker "Ka-Block!" and it appears to be working... So load Pocket and use Ka-Block and they work together on my machine.


Sandvox: Only reachable within local network I have several Mac Minis using several OS (10.7.2-Intel Core 2 Duo, 10.8.5-Intel Core i5, 10.5.8-Power PC, 10.9.5-Intel Core i5, 10.6.8-Intel Core 2 Duo). I am using serving pages from all and built the sites using Sandvox. Until a couple of weeks ago everything was running fine. Also using DynDNS. Recently i modified some info on several and now Sandvox replies:

Only reachable within local network

Every pertinent port in the router is open… internally the page is webserved…

help!

thank you for your time and knowledge

Hello… It was the DynDns software… reinstalled and almost everything is good now… only some bugs now


Slow Terminal on Sierra The Terminal app is slow at reacting to input, lag is very noticeable when I press and hold Enter. When I type bash to create a sub-shell it becomes much faster.

I believe this behavior started when I updated to Sierra, but I might be wrong.

Does anyone know why this happens?

After upgrading to High Sierra, I also noticed that there is some lag in Terminal.app after pressing Enter. I was able to fix it by doing this:

Go to Preferences > Profiles > Shell
In the "Run Command" box, write login -f <username> (replace <username> with your username)
Uncheck "Run inside shell"

I suspect that Terminal.app tries to integrate with the shell somehow and running bash indirectly fixes that.

When installing the Telnet program, the speed became faster.

https://dor.ky/restore-telnet-in-mac-os-high-sierra-10-13/


Is there a way to sleep your mac through iPhone/iPad? In the remote that comes with Apple TV, if you pair it with a mac, you'd be able to press and hold the play/pause button and your mac will go to sleep. Is there a way to do the same with iPhone/iPad Remote app?

If you just need the sleep/wake function, you may want to take a look at iNet WOL, which does a great job. It's the little brother of iNet Pro, a much more extensive network tool for the iPhone.

Not out of the box, but there might be an app for that. What I would recommend is simply installing a VNC app on both devices - something like TeamViewer or LogMeIn. Then, you can  use your iPhone to navigate the system menu like you normally would.


iMac screen won't turn back on after a sleep session in Windows 8.1 I do a lot of hardware programming, and some of the chips I write applications for don't have IDEs and/or compilers that are compatible with anything other than windows, so I do use Windows quite often. I have recently decided to dedicate my personal laptop to my main operating system, Linux, and move Windows over to my other computer, iMac. The problem I have been encountering ever since I installed Windows 8.1, though, is that the screen won't turn back on after a sleep session. Has anyone else had a similar problem? How did you overcome it?
Note: I have already set my screensaver time to none and that didn't seem to fix anything.

I have a 2011 iMac which I have been having the same issue with since windows 8.  For me, it is an issue with when "turn off the display after..." is set. I have turned off this feature, and my PC just goes into sleep mode instead. It is slightly inconvenient though, as I can't run things in the background during.


Command+C (copy) with the left command key does not work I'm facing a strange problem. When I type ⌘+C with the left command key, it does not work anymore. The left command key is working for ⌘+V or ⌘+X or any others so it's not a hardware problem.

The C key is working too. The right command key is working for ⌘+C.

I tried changing keyboard language, adding a shortcut, reset NVRAM, activated/deactivated VoiceOver (tip found on a site) to no avail. I'm on a MacBook Pro with Mavericks.

Make sure when you press CMD+C your Edit menu in the top flashes, this indicates it works as expected.

If it doesn't, go to Keyboard settings in System Preferences and:

Restore defaults Modifier Keys...,
Restore defaults in Shortcuts tab,
In App Shortcuts click the + button and test if Keyboard Shortcut input box will react on your combination.

If Edit menu flashes and it still doesn't work, then the first thing to do is to restart pasteboard service by the following commands:

launchctl stop com.apple.pboard
launchctl start com.apple.pboard

If still doesn't work, here are some other suggestions to troubleshoot the problem:

Re-test in different applications just in case.
Re-test if works when using contextual menu (without using the shortcut).
Re-test alternative combination such as CMD+X for Cut instead.
Run Console to see your System log queries if something obvious is happening.
Test if the Clipboard works from the terminal via:

$ echo test | pbcopy
$ pbpaste

If Paste menu item is no more greyed out, then maybe it's a problem with Paste command.

If you're advanced user, use dtruss or fs_usage to debug it, for instance:

$ sudo fs_usage | grep -C4 MyAppWhereCopyDoesntWork

and then notice other apps which appearing exactly when you press the shortcut which potentially you could consider quitting for testing purposes.
Disable any recent programs that you run or restart your computer.
Disable VoiceOver as suggested here.
Force quit the Finder (e.g.: killall -HUP Finder).
If still doesn't work, consider rebooting the system, especially in Recovery or Safe mode to re-test.

As for a workaround, you can install Karabiner app and remap your shortcuts by configuring private.xml file (see Misc tab). For more suggestion, please check the following posts:

Remap Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, and Ctrl-X only
How can I reassign the copy/paste keyboard shortcuts?

This issue is real and I think every mac user experience it on a weekly basis, but likely people continue to doubt themselves over if they actually command c or not properly.
The fix. If you are using Karabiner like real hacker should:
Just add this to your karabiner complex configurations:
[
    {
        "from": {
            "key_code": "c",
            "modifiers": {
                "mandatory": [
                    "left_command"
                ]
            }
        },
        "to": [
            {
                "key_code": "c",
                "modifiers": [
                    "left_command"
                ]
            },
            {
                "key_code": "c",
                "modifiers": [
                    "left_command"
                ]
            },
            {
                "key_code": "c",
                "modifiers": [
                    "left_command"
                ]
            }
        ],
        "type": "basic"
    }
]

Now that should make the copy flash a few times in the menu.
You can increase or decrease as much as you want. Personally I have a few more.


How do I recover deleted browser history on iPhone? I accidentely deleted the browser history in Safari on the iPhone, but would still need to re-access one link. How can I recover a deleted browser history?

Not endorsing this practice, but yes, there is a way that sometimes works...

Go to Settings, then Safari, then scroll to bottom and select 'Advanced' and then 'Website Data'. Selecting from there should show you history.

It is a difficult thing to retrieve the deleted browser history if you don't have backups, but don't worry, if the data are still not overwritten, there is a strong possibility that deleted browser history can be retrieved with some professional tools.


How do I add the "explicit" tag to albums in iTunes I know how to add explicit tags to individual tracks, but I'd like to know how to add the tag to albums/the album title as well. I'm using windows if that affects anything.

It seems that this is a tag within the file. If you are using Windows, follow this guide here. Per Mod request, I've put the instructions below.

Begin by downloading MP3Tag, whether the most recent version or a portable version.
Open iTunes and find a song that you’d like to mark with an appropriate tag. Click the song once, so that it is highlighted, and then press “Ctrl + I.” The next window will have a button marked “File.” Under it you can see if the track is an AAC or MP3 (iTunes calls MP3 ‘MPEG audio’). Unfortunately, adding these tags to an MP3 file is not possible, so any track you wish to mark must be AAC.
Right-click the track and choose to “Create AAC Version.” In our case, we’ll use a copy of Hard-Fi’s “Suburban Knights.” iTunes will play a tone when the AAC version has been created, and it will appear alongside the original version in your library. Use “Ctrl + I” again to double-check which file is the AAC version if you are unsure.
Open MP3Tag at this point, and right click the song in iTunes to see a list of actions. Choose “Show in Windows Explorer,” then drag the song into MP3Tag.
Right-click the entry within MP3Tag and select the “Extended Tags” option. The tag is not part of MP3Tag by default, so you’ll have to add it via the first of the three buttons.
After clicking the first of the three buttons, another window will appear asking for two properties: the tag name and the tag value.
Call the tag “ITUNESADVISORY” (without the quote marks), and choose the correct value. Entering “0” will mean that no icon appears, just as before. Entering “1” will give the song the “Explicit” tag, and entering “2” will give it the “Clean” tag. Leaving the value blank will give no tag.
After modifying the details for the song, press “Ctrl + S” in MP3Tag to get a window informing you that the changes have been saved.
Remove the songs you’re changing from iTunes. As iTunes cannot register changes to the song, you’ll have to remove and re-add them. Make sure you choose to “Keep Files.”
Drag the modified tracks back into iTunes, and you’ll see the corresponding tag. Sync them with an iOS device and the same remains true.

Do you use Apple Music? If so, there won’t be a way to do so, IIRC.


Disable `use safari suggested password` without disabling autofill Is there a way to disable "use safari suggested password" shown below, without disabling autofill?

The correct answer is: there is no way to disable the suggested passwords "feature" without completely disabling auto-fill.

Safari->preferences->passwords, delete those you do not want.


How can I sync my iTunes music library between two Macs for free? I have a desktop system that I use as a server. I also have a MacBook Pro that is my main computer. I've done a lot of organization and cleanup of my music library and have it all on my MacBook Pro.

I'd like to be able to keep the music library on my MacBook Pro in sync with the desktop machine so that my wife can access everything from her own MacBook Pro.

I thought about setting up folder actions that would copy the files into the "Automatically add to iTunes" folder.  However, since I like to use the "keep my iTunes library organized" option, the files get moved into the iTunes music directory and I can't write a script that will compare my MacBook Pro's iTunes music library with the "Automatic" directory on the server.

Also, a simple file copy will not sync metadata like ratings and plays. Is there a free, automated solution for syncing iTunes libraries between 2 Macs?

Below is how I finally did it based on the rsync suggestion:

I used the link provided by James in this answer (but I took out the --size-only option after the first sync):

iTunes Utility - Merging Libraries

I also took out the --force option (because it's redundant when also using --delete). so my rsync command looks like this:

rsync -av --delete ~/Music/iTunes/ /Volumes/robert/Music/iTunes > ~/Automation/automator/logs/itunes_rsync.log

I then integrated this into an Automator workflow. Looks like this: Get Specified Servers ► Connect to Servers ► Run Shell Script ► Eject Disk.

Creating it as an iCal Workflow is screwy for me because I use MobileMe and the iCal event gets synced with my other machines where I don't want this workflow to run.  So instead, I created an agent using Lingon that runs the workflow every 8 hours.

It's possible to keep libraries in sync using rsync. Google for iTunes and rsync and you'll find some solutions.

I haven't tried this yet (although I am going to soon) but I believe the newest version of Dropbox has a lan sync.  So that you can tell it NOT to backup your music over the internet (if it's larger than your plan allows) but keep them synced over the lan.


How to add managed GSuite account with mail disabled to iOS 12.0? I'm at a university with a centrally-managed GSuite account. They've disabled Mail there (we're using Office365 for that) but the Calendar function does work. I'm trying to add my calendar account to iOS. What I do:

Go Settings -> Passwords & Accounts -> Add Account -> Google
Enter my university email address
It shows a custom logon screen; I enter credentials
I get "Login successful, redirecting..."
I see the screen with switches for Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Notes, and a spinner at the top of the screen
I get redirected back to the "Add Account" screen, with iCloud, Exchange, and so on listed

I don't get an error message or anything, it just bumps me back.

Anyone know how I might make this work, or if there's even some sort of logging I could see?

For what it's worth, this works fine on MacOS.

I have the same situation and problem. I contacted Apple Support today, they stated that they are aware of this issue and working together with Google to sort things out, they said it is a problem on the Google side.

I am going to contact G Suite support (I am an organisation admin) and will put the information provided by Google in this post.


why cannot I edit my `hosts` file? I'm trying to edit my hosts file, because doing ssh <some host in hosts> fails to translate to ip.

according to the Finder UI it is found under:

however when trying to run cat hosts from the terminal I get an error:

➜  /etc  cat hosts
cat: hosts: No such file or directory

I tried to create a new hosts file but then I see another one is created next to the first one

but when I try to edit the second hosts I need to duplicate to anther destination. I copy it to /etc and again the first problem occurs.

I have tried to change the permissions to everyone can read and write. But yet it didn't help.

Usually only the root user is allowed to modify the file hosts.

To do that and fix your hosts file or your /etc folder (depending where you applied your read/write permissions) follow these steps:

Throw away your newly created hosts file (but not the old one!)
Repair your permissions with Disk Utility.

Open Terminal and enter sudo nano /etc/hosts and hit ↵
Enter your password (it will not be shown!) and hit ↵
The standard hosts file in Yosemite looks like this:

Edit your hosts file.
The format for each line is IP-address, then a tab or a single space and the hostname(s). Terminate the file with an empty trailing line.
write the changes to disk with ctrlO followed by ↵
and exit nano with ctrlx
Enter exit, hit ↵ and quit Terminal.app

As an alternative for the steps 3-7 you may download and install hosts.prefpane and enter your additional hosts there.

I encountered this problem in Yosemite 10.10.3. I couldn't find the solution until I started to think outside the box.

Most people don’t know it, but as default the ”/private/etc” folder and ”/private/etc/hosts” file permissions are set to ”read only”. So if you only change the ”hosts” file permissions to ”read and write” you still won’t be able to edit it in TextEdit. The ”hosts” file is locked due to the ”/private/etc” folder.  The trick is that you need to change both the permissions of ”/private/etc” folder then ”/private/etc/hosts” file.

sudo chmod 777 /private/etc;chmod 777 /private/etc/hosts;open -t /private/etc/hosts

I don't care if it is a bug or not!


How to unrate multiple album ratings at the same time? I'm using iTunes 12.2.1.16 and today I realized that there is something called 'album rating'. This messes up my ordering according to the track rating. Suddenly there are songs appearing with hollow stars that I never rated.

I found out that this is the automatic album rating from iTunes. So far so bad. I also managed to disable it for one album.

But how can I unrate my entire library? In the album view I can select multiple albums, but not set the album rating...

iTunes driving me crazy again...

It's about deleting the album rating, not the track rating.

I was looking to do the same thing the OP requested here. This was my solution:
Open the Music app (formerly iTunes in macOS 10.14 and earlier) and do one of the following:

create a new smart playlist with the criteria that album rating does not equal zero stars (the star to the left of the first star) then open up that smart playlist and select all the songs therein
sort tracks by album rating and select all the songs that have a non-zero album rating.

Next, open up Script Editor.app and paste in the following script:
tell application "Music"
    repeat with theSong in selection
        set album rating of theSong to 0
    end repeat
end tell

You may need to run it more than once as it may fail as the selection changes while songs are being removed from the smart playlist. After a successful execution, all manual album ratings will be removed. Some albums may still have grayed out ratings: these are from the song ratings themselves and aren't actually album ratings.

Albums are rated on an average of the Track ratings making them up.

As far as I can see, you cannot eliminate one without the other, though you could just hide the column & see if it works for you.

To clear all ratings... both Song & Album
You cannot undo this, so don't try it just to see...

Go to My Music.
Sort on the right by Songs.
Right click the header if 'Rating' is not one of the headers & add it.
 Cmd ⌘   A  to select all
Right-click one song & select rating/None

Done.

All ratings are cleared.


Macbook loses network connection when connecting external display In the image below you can see the mtr output while connecting the screen, the red part is where the monitor is connected. The monitor works just fine and has no problems with other computers, it's just that the macbook is apparently slightly crazy.

The wireless connection appears to be working just fine, but the connection has over 80% packet loss and/or have a latency of multiple seconds when the monitor is connected. The access point is a 2013 time capsule which has no problems as far as I know.

Specs:

Monitor: Dell 2007FP connected through DVI with the converter shown below
Laptop: Macbook Pro Retina 15" 2012
Thunderbolt to DVI/HDMI/Displayport converter (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mini-Displayport-Adapter-Cable-Thunderbolt/dp/B0093UCXEO)

This helped: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jObj6YnK44Q

ALU foil around the cable (up to the tip)
Bend the cable backwards (make it perpendicular to the screen)

and you're back online.

One fine moment as soon as i unplugged the external display connected via an vga to type c adapter the internet started working. I don't know the theory behind this but its a truth that the adapter can cause the issue.


Is it possible to program an iOS app using an iPad? As the title states, I am trying to ascertain whether or not it is possible to program (using XCode, I'm guessing) iOS apps for iPad and iPhone using an iPad.

I cannot find any related details using Google or by searching the Apple website. Apple's recent advertisements lead me to believe they are marketing iPad as more of a general purpose computer and less of a tablet-centric device. If the former is true, it should be possible to create apps written in Swift using the device, right?

Yes and no, but mainly no. Let me explain.

You can't use an iPad (at least not yet) to go through the entire process (i.e. design, test, and submit your app). You also can't use Xcode on an iPad (at least not directly, although you could do this remotely - but that is not a practical solution).

People can and do use iPads for:

learning how to code
editing code using various editors (but not Xcode)
designing some of the other resources/assets used in apps (e.g. images, icons, sounds, etc)

However, most development is done using an integrated development environment (IDE) such as Xcode. Most apps for iOS (and macOS, tvOS, and watchOS) are programmed and submitted via Xcode, although there are alternatives.

Yes using VNC viewer you can run another device and run visual studio
Using visual studio you can make Mac OS apps and more


eBook formats - Kindle to iBook and back? I am thinking of moving my extensive eBook library to iBooks or Kindle. Has anyone done this, and what does it take?

I just don't want book libraries in multiple proprietary formats, and have to look for content across apps.

Note that there are now three main eBook formats

PDF which is not reflowable text and is used mainly for graphical books. There is a open specification for this.
MobiPocket(Kindle files with extension .mobi (and encrypted as .azw)) The specification is not published and so Amazon can change it when they want.
ePub which is most of the rest including iBooks. This is a published specification and there are open source tools that can create, edit and validate that the book meets the specification.

If the books do not have Digital Rights Management(DRM) then Kindle books can easily be converted to ePub as the format is similar, the reverse can also be done but you might lose some information as ePub data contains more things than Kindle data.

The easiest way to convert is to use Calibre which is a tool for managing ebooks including conversion, loading to devices and organisation of a library of books.

DRM books are tied to the application with which you bought them. An exception is that many ePub EBooks (but not iBooks and not Kindle) use Adobe's DRM and so can can be used in several devices.

There are plugins to Calibre, which are not legal in many countries, which allow removal of the DRM and thus use in Calibre allowing conversion between the formats. However I belive that there is no plugin for decryption of iBooks files.

Apple iBooks are very limited and therefor should be avoided if at all possible. Other eBook types are much more friendlier to use.


Get first item in list using AppleScript How do I get the first item from a list into a variable?

I'm trying to get the first window of an application's windows.

I tried

tell application "System Events"
    repeat with theProcess in processes
        if not background only of theProcess then
            if processName is "Xcode" then
                set theWindow to first window of windows
            end if
        end if
    end repeat
end tell

but it throws this error:

  Can't get window of every window.

Unless you have an explicit need for going about it in the manner shown in your question, I'd keep it much more simple and use:

tell application "System Events" to set isRunning to exists (processes where name is "Xcode")
if isRunning then set theWindow to (first window of application "Xcode")

Otherwise, modifying your existing code block in the following manner will get that same result as the two lines of code above:

tell application "System Events"
    repeat with theProcess in processes
        if not background only of theProcess then
            if name of theProcess is "Xcode" then
                tell application "Xcode"
                    set theWindow to first window of application "Xcode"
                end tell
            end if
        end if
    end repeat
end tell

If you want to use the first two line of code in my answer in a more tokenized manned, as an example, use:

set appName to "Xcode"
tell application "System Events" to set isRunning to exists (processes where name is appName)
if isRunning then set theWindow to (first window of application appName)

Then all you need to do is set appName to the target app in the first line of code and the two lines of code following it stand as is and do not need to be edited for use with other app names.

Instead of first window of windows try item 1 of windows

As pointed out by others, your code may have additional issues to work through but using the syntax suggested in this answer can be used to overcome the issue of retrieving the first object in a list of objects.


Mac won't boot from USB drive: Prohibited sign I tried to clean install OS X El Capitan on my Mac, but it won’t boot from the USB drive. Here are the steps I took to create the bootable USB drive (I have a Mid-2014 MacBook Pro with Retina Display):

Downloaded the latest OS X El Capitan (10.11.3) from the Mac App Store.
Created a bootable USB drive using createinstallmedia (as explained in Apple’s documentation) and it went well.
Erased Macintosh HD.
Tried booting from USB drive. It loads through the middle, but then a prohibited sign shows up and nothing happens.

What are my options now?

How can I determine what the problem is? I know Internet Recovery is one of my options, but I can’t connect to my home Wi-Fi (apparently for no good reason) and I have to do it with my iPhone’s Hotspot, and I happen to have the setup for El Capitan. (And Internet Recovery will install OS X Mavericks on my MacBook, right? Because it was shipped with Mavericks.)

It may be that boot-up from the USB flash drive is "prohibited" because your USB flash drive requires adjustment to the "ownership" settings. I learned this the hard way myself. Most of the guides, including Apple's own support doc on how to create a bootable Mac OS installer on USB — as of this date — fail to mention the ownership step.
First and foremost, the USB flash drive must support ownership functionality. Complicating matters, the USB flash drive default may disable boot support. For this reason, you will need to enable it before/after completing the process described by Apple, MacWorld and others using the "createinstallmedia" command in the Terminal window.
The "missing step", after ensuring the USB flash drive is formatted correctly, is to ignore ownership

Mounting the USB flash drive on the desktop, right click and select "Get Info"
In the info window, expand the Sharing & Permissions: section.
Click the padlock icon to unlock administrator options <img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/xcwz7.png" alt="padlock
icon" />.
Enter your administrative password.
Deselect the check box ignore ownership
Click the padlock to save the changes.
Eject the drive if you're ready to remove the USB Drive and install

On the machine you wish to install on, you can hold down the Option (ALT) key to select the boot drive, select your installer. If you can't see it, reset the PRAM and try again. If you still can't boot from the USB flash drive, verify that you created the Mac OS installer on the USB flash drive while working in the same (or as close to) current Mac OS as you intend to write to the USB flash drive. Some users have problems creating a successful bootable USB flash drive because they attempt to follow Apple's instructions on older versions of Mac OS X that require Disk Utility, not the Terminal window "createinstallmedia" command, to create a bootable USB flash drive. If all else fails, try a different name-brand flash drive of at least 8 gigabytes or greater in size. (Do keep in mind that there are a lot of counterfeits sold by third parties on Ebay and Amazon so it's equally important to buy your USB flash drive new from a reputable source.)
The most thorough guide I have found on the topic of creating a bootable Mac OS installer on a USB flash drive is here:
https://www.lifewire.com/create-emergency-os-x-boot-device-2260173

I've tried creating a bootble OSX drive from a Windows, it just causes errors during installation so I recommend doing it from a Mac or a friend's Mac


Remove all paired Bluetooth devices from iPhone in one go I'd like to remove a long list of old devices I paired to an iPhone without having to remove them one by one (I've got like 30 devices saved). I tried resetting Network settings followed by Reset All Settings but to no avail, they're still there!. Any way to do it without having to erase the iPhone?

I just need to know if there's an Apple official way to do it, so to speak, not any third party app or method.

I guess the only soluction is to erase all contents and settings

The way to do this is:

Shift-Option-Click your bluetooth icon. This brings up the Debug. You will see three options in the attached image.

Remove all devices is your one stop removal.

Reset the Bluetooth module is the factory reset option.


Mount Android Phone on Desktop Is there a way to mount my Android phone on my Mac Air desktop in order to transfer files like images and music?

Use Android File Transfer, created by Google itself, and it gives you a Finder window to at least transfer files via USB connection. I noticed, however, that you have to use the Samsung cable they provide to power the phone, and not some cheap knockoff USB cable.

It would be nice to have a way for the icon to mount on the desktop via a Bluetooth connection -- but that's just not possible yet.

There is also the free Handshaker application in the Apple Store that is more full-featured and intuitive than Google's Android File Transfer. So far, it's looking like my best option and I don't see quirks except that I had to enable Android Developer Mode and then turn on USB Debugging on, as well as uninstall Android File Exchange because it conflicts with it.

Still, if there was another app to accomplish this, it would be much better as this official app hasn't been updated in over 5 years. Also, handshaker has recently broken. (At least for the time being)


PDFs missing from iBooks on iPad after restore After a complete restore of my iPad 2 from iTunes, all my PDF books not from the iTunes Store were gone.  I just saw them for seconds and then disappeared.   How can I get them back?

Look in the iTunes -> iTunes Music -> Books.   They should be there!


Sharing internet from macbook to iphone I've got a problem with sharing internet connection from my macbook pro to iphone.
I've shared Ethernet connection in System Preference and managed to connect to the network from my iPhone but has no internet connection on the iPhone
I assume that the problem is because my macbook's Ethernet connection uses proxy. I tried to enabled auto in proxy setting on iPhone but it didn't help.
So the question is how to set up internet connection sharing under conditions described above. Thanks in advance.

If you can access the Internet successfully on your Mac, you can share it to your iPhone. Your Mac just essentially acts as the router. So make sure you can access the net successfully on your Mac first. Then go to Sharing and turn on Internet Sharing, choosing to share the Ethernet connection via the Airport. Now connect to the adhoc network that's been created using your iPhone.

Go to Settings- General-Reset-Reset Network Settings. It worked for me.


Can't add custom keyboard layout in System preferences I've created the custom keyboard layout using Ukelele and save an obtained bundle to /Library/Keyboard Layouts folder.

Unfortunately, when I try to add any new layout in System Preferences app (having something in "Keyboard Layouts" folder), it just crashes. Has anyone encountered this issue?

P.S. macOS 10.13.6

I have no problem installing and using your .bundle once the .icns file is removed.  I think there is something wrong with it.

Here is a new .icns file which I think will fix the problem.  Let us know.

So, after some investigation, here’s what I’ve found:

If you add .bundle file to any of the possible folders, System Preferences will crash. BUT, if you add .keylayout file instead, it will work!
If you add a .keylayout file in Home/Library/Keyboard Layouts -> you can add it, it will appear at the layouts list, but you won’t be able to choose your new layout (I read about this bug on this site as well);
However, if you add a .keylayout file in Macintosh HD/Library/Keyboard Layouts -> everything works correctly.

Summing it up, custom layouts are BUGGY in macOS, but you can add one. However, the reason I wanted to add a custom layout was to change russian flag to a neutral icon (and it’s possible in Ukelele using .bundle only, because with .keylayout you’ll see default keyboard icon), so I failed here.


Mail app issue with gmail I have a very frustrating issue with mail app. I am using the mail app for my gmail email address.

The issue is that, when I am writing a new message and would like to save a draft, the app creates a NEW draft for each time I press cmd+S to save the draft state. So, by the time I finish writing the email, I can see 20+ new drafts all sourced from the single message.

I experience this only with mail app. I used another apps, and all did not have this issue.

I am running osx yosemite.

Don't save drafts !!!
Drafts are auto saved by OS.


iPhone Trojan Attack Warning I opened an internet radio app, HiDef Radio, that I have used before, many times, on my iPhone 4s with iOS 9.3. After connecting to a station and listening a short while, a window popped open saying:

  Apple Security
  Attention!!

  (6) virus detected on your iPhone!
  IP address 108.72.0.216 (not my iPhone's IP address)
  One of the last sites you've visited contained a Trojan, loading via the vulnerabilities of the browser.

  Click ok to start the cleaning process. After clean up, make sure to upgrade your system to the latest version.

  Install        Cancel

  Detected by Apple Firewall Ver 6.2.7

Clicking the Cancel button took my to the App Store for a VPN program, HotSpot Shield Free VPN Proxy which, as it turns out, I already have on my iPhone! But it was not running (and is not now, either) when the popup window appeared.

So what does all this mean? Obviously the popup is fake, there is no Firewall on iOS, the IP address is wrong, etc.

Is AnchorFree (makers of HotSpot) resorting to scare tactics to push their product?
Is the HiDef Radio app compromised?

These popups are completely and totally FAKE. All they're meant to do is prey upon your fears as a user. (tl;dr at the bottom)

Most app advertisements are networked, meaning the developer adds a little bit of code to their app, sets what kind of ads they want, and the network lets people buy ad slots. Sketchy ads (like these) pay a lot more, since they're banned from many networks and only some apps allow them (that's usually configurable).

These app advertisements are usually implemented as a custom WebView that only closes once the X appears after a few seconds. As you can see here, these ads also appear in safari, where you have to close the page, and cancel can do whatever the designers want it to do:

A lot of this style of ad also reference the "adult sites you've visited" hoping you won't turn to technical support or the Internet for help.

In reference to you saying that this was made by AnchorFree, that's highly likely. It's an easy (and sadly, effective) way of pushing their product to get more subscribers. Clicking download would've most likely taken you to the HotspotShield install page as well. Your HiDef radio app is probably fine.

tl;dr: your phone is fine, the ad is fake, and AnchorFree probably paid for it. The HiDef radio app is also fine.

PS: I'd be careful about the VPN apps you use, since some will sell your data that they gather through the tunnel they make to advertisers and other people. Read the privacy policy!

I had the same problem with one of our iPhone users and I'd recommend restoring the phone to factory but before doing that review what apps you have installed.


Ukelele generated custom keyboard layouts not working in Lion? I created a custom keyboard layout with Ukelele (http://scripts.sil.org/ukelele) in Snow Leopard (idea is to generate scandinavian letters with Alt-key, otherwise have a pretty much standard U.S. layout).  After the upgrade, the old installed (to ~/Library/Keyboard Layouts) layout wasn't working.

Ukelele seems to work OK in Lion, but whether I put the generated keylayout in a bundle or single file, or save it "/Library/Keyboard Layouts" or "~/Library/Keyboard Layouts" doesn't seem to matter.

Help?

EDIT:

@Sergio, I cannot choose the layout in Input Sources.
One keylayout file I tried: http://semeai.org/~sjl/us-scands.keylayout

BTW Off-topic: I don't know if I'm going blind or something, but I can't seem to locate the Library directory in Finder.  I need to copy stuff to and fro from my home directory.

UPDATE:

I've been trying to get this work on my machine for a few hours now and I just thought to try out with a random layout from the 'net; http://colemak.com/Mac was the first to hit the radar.  I did the same thing as with my layout, saved it under Library, and it shows under Input Sources.  My layout still doesn't.  I'll try to create a layout from scratch, see if that helps.  BTW, apparently "New from current input source" in Ukelele is broken in Lion.

UPDATE 2011/08/15:

@Tom:

Copied your keylayout (it naturally ended up in my Junk folder):

midgard (01:55) >ls -l ~/Library/Keyboard\ Layouts/MongolianQWERTY.keylayout
-rw-r--r--@ 1 sjl  staff  44536 Mar 13  2008 /Users/sjl/Library/Keyboard Layouts/MongolianQWERTY.keylayout

Logged out, logged in, isn't showing in Input sources (I'm looking very closely between "Maori" and "Myanmar - QWERTY").

I've also uninstalled bunch of software and plugins giving suspicious messages to system.log, but hasn't helped.

UPDATE 2011/08/16:

I created a test account, and lo, the layout works perfectly for it.  Also the bug in preferences doesn't show for that account.  When trying this on my own account, there are no errors in Console logs with the suggested keywords (I can't seem to locate console.log file, though).

UPDATE 2011/08/16 later:

Nuking Library/Caches (and relogging) didn't help.

UPDATE 2011/08/17:

I did

% find Library -name "*.plist" -exec mv {} {}.renamed \;

and restarted, but it didn't help.  I restored the situation with

% for file in `find Library -name "*.plist.renamed"`; \
  do mv "$file" "${file//.renamed/}"; done

addendum: I also went through all the .plist files with plutil -s as described in http://www.askdavetaylor.com/can_i_check_my_plist_files_in_mac_os_x_for_problems.html.  There was some brokennes, but in very unrelated applications.

UPDATE 2011/09/10:

I went the extra mile and moved my whole Library away using another account, login in with my own account and observing stuff still not working.  I have copied the layout to /Library/Keyboard Layouts, from where it works for a test account, but not for my own.  Also, if I delete all the custom keylayout files, from everywhere, the Character Viewer and the Keyboard Viewer appaer as selectable to the Input Sources menu and also show under the International menu in the menubar.  As soon as I copy a keyboard layout to Library (home or system), the viewers disappear from both the menu and the Input Sources.

Any ideas how I could get more information from the system? I tried Command-V on boot for verbose boot but that didn't give any extra information for this issue.

SOLUTION FOR POSTERITY:

Adapted from http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1896?viewlocale=en_US for Lion:

sudo rm /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.IntlDataCache*
sudo find /var/ -name "*IntlDataCache*" -exec rm {} \;

Restart.

The layout you gave the link to works fine for me.  Are you sure that your copy of the file ends only in .keylayout and not .keylayout.xml or something else?  You have done logout/login after installing it, right?

I love ukelele.
in lion last macbook pro, did not work as usual.
the extension .keylayout seems not to work.
it worked finally with the bundle, which you get in ukelele by saving bundle.
it then has to be copied in the library/keyboardlayout with option key, otherwise it will be an alias.
hope this helps


Specify Minimum Font Size in Safari 10.0, macOS Sierra The Minimum Font Size option seems to be missing in Safari 10.0 / macOS Sierra.  It's been replaced by Page Zoom (prefs > advanced).  I'm specifically asking how to prevent Safari in Sierra from ever using a font size below a certain value.  I don't want to have to fix this on a site by site basis.

Let's say I want to set 11px as the minimum font size in Safari on macOS Sierra.  How do I do this?

use

defaults write com.apple.Safari com.apple.Safari.ContentPageGroupIdentifier.WebKit2MinimumFontSize -int 14

… restart Safari, be happy again! (replace 14 with whatever suits you)

edit: as OP said, paste the line into terminal, sorry for omitting this initially!

Go to Finder then Applications click on Safari then go to view in the menu bar click and a drop down list appears click on, Show view options, and a drop down box appears Applications where you will see a text sizing box set to your preference and set as default.


OSX 10.6 admin account missing After a power shortage a Mac with El Capitan installed, downgraded to 10.6 and the admin account is missing.

The main session password is also in an older state, and we cannot connect anymore.
We have tried to suppress the /var/db/.AppleSetupDone and go through the account creation process but without success.

Does anyone have any way to retrieve an admin account?

Try restarting and then press Command+S. This will boot the computer in single user mode. After everything loaded, type in ( /sbin/ mount -uw /)first, then (rm /var/db/ .applesetupdone), and finally (shutdown -h now )or (reboot). This erases the previous setup and makes the mac think its brand new. All you would need is to create a new admin account.


How can I make the OS print dialog default to a particular preset? Simply put, this is what I want: I want to take a unique printer preset that has already been made and make the OS default to it any time that particular printer is selected to be printed to.

I know how to edit a particular printer's 'Default Settings' preset through the CUPS web UI, but this solution doesn't work for me because one of the printing options I need to change doesn't appear in this UI (for science: the printers I'm working with are Konica Minolta Bizhub C252, C353, and C364; the setting I'm looking to change is make the default color "Grayscale").

I have been able to modify the com.apple.print.custompresets.forprinter.PRINTER.plist file to get the system print dialog to pull up the preset that I want by default, but there is a problem with solving things this way: I can't edit this PLIST file properly with TextEdit (the XML gets mangled), and installing XCode on every machine isn't feasible. A solution could be to bring an editor with me on a thumb drive to each machine, but I don't know of an app I could use.

Any path to a solution to this problem, I am open to. I've tried to be as specific about my ultimate goal as possible, and I will answer any followup questions I can.

Any ideas?

There is a much easier way.

Create a Print Preset, with the settings as you want them. Select it.
Press the Print button while holding down Alt (Option).

That will force your current settings to be the default for the printer.

Are you looking for a way to edit files easily?

TextWrangler is a good option.  It's a small, free, and good plist editor.  You can put that on a thumb drive and go to each machine and install it.  On your thumb drive you can also have a file named "plist_edit.sh" with these contents:

#!/bin/bash
edit /path/to/your/plist/com.apple.print.custompresets.forprinter.PRINTER.plist

Once TextWrangler is installed, just double-click the plist_edit.sh file.  I know you don't want to have to install something on every machine but TextWrangler is nice to have and "light" and once it's installed, it's there.  This question is a bit old so I'm guessing you found a solution already.


SIMBL Plugins not launching properly under OS X Lion I have OS X Lion installed on my 2011 MacBook Pro. I also have SIMBL with two plugins: Colorful Sidebar and Safari Omnibar. I (obviously) have Finder launch when I login, and I also have Safari launch at login.

My issue is that when I first use either application, the desired effect of the application does not kick in. i.e. the icons in Finder's sidebar are still gray, and the google search box can still be found as a separate entity in safari.

Restarting either application causes the SIMBL plugin to kick in for that application.

My question is why are these plugins not activating and doing what they are supposed to do until after I relaunch their respective application?

Unfortunately, this is the behaviour of the SIMBL plugin.

  One oddity about this solution is that you may need to kill the Finder
  again to bring the color icons back after a full system reboot

Source

Here you can find the answers

http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20110825114202681


There was an error connecting to the Apple ID server - akd NSURLSession/NSURLConnection HTTP load failed (kCFStreamErrorDomainSSL, -9807) When entering my password into App Store I get:

There was an error connecting to the Apple ID server

I checked the password and it's fine. I changed the password just in case, it still does not work, but now my whole Mac is disconnected from my iCloud account.
When I open Console, I get:

2016-05-01 9:17:06.292 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.auditd[1047]) Endpoint has been activated through legacy launch(3) APIs. Please switch to XPC or bootstrap_check_in(): com.apple.auditd
2016-05-01 9:17:06.300 PM myusername[1052]: audit warning: soft /var/audit
2016-05-01 9:17:06.300 PM myusername[1053]: audit warning: closefile /var/audit/20160502011137.20160502011706
2016-05-01 9:17:06.300 PM myusername[1051]: audit warning: allsoft
2016-05-01 9:17:06.499 PM akd[300]: NSURLSession/NSURLConnection HTTP load failed (kCFStreamErrorDomainSSL, -9807)
2016-05-01 9:17:06.700 PM akd[300]: NSURLSession/NSURLConnection HTTP load failed (kCFStreamErrorDomainSSL, -9807)
2016-05-01 9:17:06.898 PM akd[300]: NSURLSession/NSURLConnection HTTP load failed (kCFStreamErrorDomainSSL, -9807)

It seems like people get the last error when they're using an iOS 9 app that doesn't support TLS 1.2.
I'm using OS X El Capitan 10.11.4.
Edit: same issue using Safe Boot.

I've had the same problem with App Store and Icloud for some time. For me the root cause for was a security hardening tip to enforce OSCP and CRL verification.

To see if you have the same problem start "Keychain Access" and open "Preferences". Select "Certificates" and verify that you have "Best attempt" for CRL and OCSP. After changing these values back to "Best attempt" I could login to Itunes. I had to restart to be able to login to App Store.

This worked for me to

Key Chain > Preferences > Certificates > Best Attempt


How many HD video minutes do I get per 1GB of free storage? I have 7GB free. If I give that to someone to record, what sort of ballpark figure would I get for a HD video recording? There may be about 10 individual videos being recorded over a couple of hours, if that makes a difference. Maybe just one hour long one.

I just want to know a rough figure but ideally with some maths so I can work it out myself.

The iPhone 4S takes video at 1080p and 30 fps and initial tests are showing that video takes 200MB per minute. At roughly 12 GB per hour, what seemed staggering a year ago is now quite quaint with the iPhone 4 recording at less than 5 GB / hour.

MacWorld reports that an hour of iPhone 4 video is 4.8 gig.

  The iPhone records its 720p HD video at around 10 megabits (Mbps) per second. That translates to about 80MB per minute, as we noted above, or a staggering 4.8GB per hour. (Hope you sprung for the 32GB model!)

It is scientifically proven that 1gb will take a 58 minute video for an iPhone 6.


What's with the PDP Authentication Failure when connecting iPhone 4 to a cellular network? I've bought an iPhone 4 and the text and calling work fine, as does wifi. However, when trying to use internet without Wifi I get a "Could not activate cellular data network - PDP authentication failure".

How can I fix this?

There have been a lot of different attempts to fix this general error in different ways. Some of these may work for you.

Remove the SIM card from iPhone 3G, turn off the phone, reboot, then reinsert the sim card and wait an hour or two.
Go to Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset Network Settings on your phone to reset the network setting on the iPhone.
Change SIM Card
if nothing else works, call AT&T and have them reset your number.

in most cases this error occores due to insufficient credit in you mobile connection. please pay your bill to the service provider and try again. it should work.


Hide frequently used Memojis from Emoji keyboard in iOS 13 I just upgraded my iPhone to iOS 13 and I noticed that, while composing a message, when switching to the "Emoji" keyboard (that now can be accessed through an apposite button), it shows, on the very left hand side of the screen, my 8 most frequently used Memoji. This is very annoying to me, since I almost never use Memoji and I'd like just Emojis to be shown.

Does someone know how to hide Memojis from the Emoji keyboard?

From https://ioshacker.com/how-to/hide-memoji-stickers-ios-13-emoji-keyboard:

Swipe emoji keyboard towards the left and [hope that] iOS remembers the keyboard position.

  iOS "remembers" the keyboard position for a few minutes only. When the app is unloaded and reloaded, the next time I open the emoji keyboard, there are the stupid memoji stickers again.

later:

  as of iOS 13.2, this behavior is no longer present, and the memoji drawer stays hidden now.

And, in the Messages app, bring up the keyboard in the app and tap on the grey A icon besides camera to bring up the feature bar. Swipe to find ● ● ● and then click Edit, and remove Memoji keyboard from the list of favorites  in the “more apps” list below.

Update:

From the same site: Open Go to Keyboard Settings to remove the "Memoji Stickers". You can search for the same also in Settings itself.

  disabling stickers via Settings only works in iOS 13.3. This option is not present in 13.2.

I made a video on how to hide the Memojis

I made a video so that its easier to show but all you need to do is hold and press the emoji button. After 1 sec your keyboard will switch to frequently used emojis.


Cannot sync apps between iMac and iPad On my iMac, in iTunes, I have one app (called "myApp", say) listed on Library > Apps. I want to transfer that app into my iPad. Under Devices > my iPad > Apps, I press "Install" next to myApp and the button label becomes "Will Install", so I expect it will be transferred to my iPad on the next sync process.

When I press the Sync button below, it starts to sync both devices, and right after it show on the status bar (next to the playback buttons) "Determining which apps to install" , I get the following message:

  The iPad could not be synced because this computer is no longer authorized for purchased items that are on this iPad.

  To authorize this computer for items purchased from the iTunes Store, choose Store >  Authorize This Computer.

So I go to  Store > Authorize This Computer, I type my Apple account password, next to my Apple ID, and iTunes gives me the following message:

  This computer is already authorised.

  Including this one, you have authorised 3 computers out of your available 5.

If at this point I try to sync again, I get the same message above saying the computer is no longer authorized.

By the way, on my iPad, under Settings > iTunes & App Store, the active Apple account it the same as on my iMac's iTunes.

Rather than try to fix a broken Apple software setup, I shall suggest a third-party solution. I think iMazing (not free) can load apps onto iDevices without the need for iTunes now.

“Need to install IPA files on your phone? Done!” — https://imazing.com/features/ios-app-management


"say" in different language? Are there voices in different languages installed in Mac OS X? E.g. spanish, french or slovak? (latest iPod Nano built-in voiceover has beautiful slovak voice, I'd like to try it on Mac OS X too)

You can use the following command in the Terminal to get a list of all the available voices:
say -v ?

On my system the output looks like this with the voice name followed by the language abbreviation (I removed the comments):

Agnes en_US
Albert    en_US
Alex  en_US
Alice it_IT
Alva  sv_SE
Amelie    fr_CA
Anna  de_DE
Bad   News
Bahh  en_US
Bells en_US
Boing en_US
Bruce en_US
Bubbles   en_US
Carmit    he_IL
Cellos    en_US
Damayanti id_ID
Daniel    en_GB
Deranged  en_US
Diego es_AR
Ellen nl_BE
Fiona en-scotland
Fred  en_US
Good  News
Hysterical    en_US
Ioana ro_RO
Joana pt_PT
Junior    en_US
Kanya th_TH
Karen en_AU
Kathy en_US
Kyoko ja_JP
Laura sk_SK
Lekha hi_IN
Luciana   pt_BR
Maged ar_SA
Mariska   hu_HU
Mei-Jia   zh_TW
Melina    el_GR
Milena    ru_RU
Moira en_IE
Monica    es_ES
Nora  nb_NO
Paulina   es_MX
Pipe  Organ
Princess  en_US
Ralph en_US
Samantha  en_US
Sara  da_DK
Satu  fi_FI
Sin-ji    zh_HK
Tessa en_ZA
Thomas    fr_FR
Ting-Ting zh_CN
Trinoids  en_US
Veena en_IN
Vicki en_US
Victoria  en_US
Whisper   en_US
Xander    nl_NL
Yelda tr_TR
Yuna  ko_KR
Zarvox    en_US
Zosia pl_PL
Zuzana    cs_CZ

This is an example on how to use say with a german voice, as suggested by scottishwildcat in the comments:
say -v Anna 'Guten Tag!'

In case you want to hear the example list, you can copy this for loop into your terminal, which will result in all installed voices speaking a text example:
say -v \? | while read LINE
 do
  SPEAKER=$(echo $LINE | egrep -o "^[a-zA-Z\-]*[ ]?[A-Z][a-z]+")
  TEXT=$(echo $LINE | egrep -o "#.*" | tr "#" " ")
  echo $SPEAKER
  echo -ne "This is voice $SPEAKER speaking the example text: \n" $TEXT | say -v $SPEAKER
 done

Yes, with macOS Big Sur 11.3.1, several languages are pre-installed to be used with the say command in the terminal.
You can check for the available voices in System Preferences > Accessibility. In the left pane, select Spoken content. From the System Voice drop-down menu, you can see the list of already installed voices. You can change here the default voice. Select Customise to add more voices and more languages. You can pre-hear these voices by clicking on the voice name and then clicking the Play button. Once you select new voices, click on OK and they will be downloaded. It might take a few minutes.
You can use the following command in the Terminal to get a list of all the available voices:
say -v'?'

On my computer, this command outputs:
Alex                en_US    # Most people recognize me by my voice.
Alice               it_IT    # Salve, mi chiamo Alice e sono una voce italiana.
Alva                sv_SE    # Hej, jag heter Alva. Jag är en svensk röst.
Amelie              fr_CA    # Bonjour, je m’appelle Amelie. Je suis une voix canadienne.
Anna                de_DE    # Hallo, ich heiße Anna und ich bin eine deutsche Stimme.
Audrey              fr_FR    # Bonjour, je m’appelle Audrey. Je suis une voix française.
Aurelie             fr_FR    # Bonjour, je m’appelle Aurelie. Je suis une voix française.
Carmit              he_IL    # שלום. קוראים לי כרמית, ואני קול בשפה העברית.
Damayanti           id_ID    # Halo, nama saya Damayanti. Saya berbahasa Indonesia.
Daniel              en_GB    # Hello, my name is Daniel. I am a British-English voice.
Diego               es_AR    # Hola, me llamo Diego y soy una voz española.
Ellen               nl_BE    # Hallo, mijn naam is Ellen. Ik ben een Belgische stem.
Fiona               en-scotland # Hello, my name is Fiona. I am a Scottish-English voice.
Fred                en_US    # I sure like being inside this fancy computer
Ioana               ro_RO    # Bună, mă cheamă Ioana . Sunt o voce românească.
Joana               pt_PT    # Olá, chamo-me Joana e dou voz ao português falado em Portugal.
Jorge               es_ES    # Hola, me llamo Jorge y soy una voz española.
Juan                es_MX    # Hola, me llamo Juan y soy una voz mexicana.
Kanya               th_TH    # สวัสดีค่ะ ดิฉันชื่อKanya
Karen               en_AU    # Hello, my name is Karen. I am an Australian-English voice.
Kate                en_GB    # Hello, my name is Kate. I am a British-English voice.
Kyoko               ja_JP    # こんにちは、私の名前はKyokoです。日本語の音声をお届けします。
Laura               sk_SK    # Ahoj. Volám sa Laura . Som hlas v slovenskom jazyku.
Lekha               hi_IN    # नमस्कार, मेरा नाम लेखा है. मैं हिन्दी में बोलने वाली आवाज़ हूँ.
Luca                it_IT    # Salve, mi chiamo Luca e sono una voce italiana.
Luciana             pt_BR    # Olá, o meu nome é Luciana e a minha voz corresponde ao português que é falado no Brasil
Maged               ar_SA    # مرحبًا اسمي Maged. أنا عربي من السعودية.
Mariska             hu_HU    # Üdvözlöm! Mariska vagyok. Én vagyok a magyar hang.
Mei-Jia             zh_TW    # 您好，我叫美佳。我說國語。
Melina              el_GR    # Γεια σας, ονομάζομαι Melina. Είμαι μια ελληνική φωνή.
Milena              ru_RU    # Здравствуйте, меня зовут Milena. Я – русский голос системы.
Moira               en_IE    # Hello, my name is Moira. I am an Irish-English voice.
Monica              es_ES    # Hola, me llamo Monica y soy una voz española.
Nora                nb_NO    # Hei, jeg heter Nora. Jeg er en norsk stemme.
Paulina             es_MX    # Hola, me llamo Paulina y soy una voz mexicana.
Rishi               en_IN    # Hello, my name is Rishi. I am an Indian-English voice.
Samantha            en_US    # Hello, my name is Samantha. I am an American-English voice.
Sara                da_DK    # Hej, jeg hedder Sara. Jeg er en dansk stemme.
Satu                fi_FI    # Hei, minun nimeni on Satu. Olen suomalainen ääni.
Serena              en_GB    # Hello, my name is Serena. I am a British-English voice.
Sin-ji              zh_HK    # 您好，我叫 Sin-ji。我講廣東話。
Tessa               en_ZA    # Hello, my name is Tessa. I am a South African-English voice.
Thomas              fr_FR    # Bonjour, je m’appelle Thomas. Je suis une voix française.
Ting-Ting           zh_CN    # 您好，我叫Ting-Ting。我讲中文普通话。
Veena               en_IN    # Hello, my name is Veena. I am an Indian-English voice.
Victoria            en_US    # Isn't it nice to have a computer that will talk to you?
Xander              nl_NL    # Hallo, mijn naam is Xander. Ik ben een Nederlandse stem.
Yelda               tr_TR    # Merhaba, benim adım Yelda. Ben Türkçe bir sesim.
Yuna                ko_KR    # 안녕하세요. 제 이름은 Yuna입니다. 저는 한국어 음성입니다.
Yuri                ru_RU    # Здравствуйте, меня зовут Yuri. Я – русский голос системы.
Zosia               pl_PL    # Witaj. Mam na imię Zosia, jestem głosem kobiecym dla języka polskiego.
Zuzana              cs_CZ    # Dobrý den, jmenuji se Zuzana. Jsem český hlas.

(partially taken from https://maithegeek.medium.com/having-fun-in-macos-with-say-command-d4a0d3319668)


Viewing two pages Apple Pages 5.2.2 In Apple Pages 5.2.2, how can I choose view 2-up? It used to be selectable in lower left corner of document...not any more. Thanks for any tips.

Here's one way to get a two page view of your document in Pages 5.2.2. Open your document and select print from the file menu. At the bottom left of the box, where you see PDF, scroll to choose Open in Preview. Then under view in the menu bar, you can choose Two Pages, and you get a two pages view which can be scrolled vertically, but cannot be edited. You can cancel out of preview without printing. I couldn't get the two page option in regular preview, only in print preview.

Now when I make a document in pages I save a copy as a PDF. When I open the PDF document I go to View>2 page viewing. This is fine if you're just reading but useless for editing. Terrible "upgrade" to the program. Good luck.


Airport - List of Network is not displayed on startup I am having a weird problem. When I save network setting is not available the list of other available network used to get displayed on startup. However from past two days I could not find it on startup. I have also verified Network preferences. "Ask to join new network is checked". More over when I try to connect to my preferred network its showing "connected to unknown" in network airport preferences.

Any help will be highly appreciated.

Thanks!

If the network you speak of is your Home network, then either the SSID is no longer being broadcast or the network name has changed somehow (one of the kids, power brownout?)

You may have to connect by ethernet and get into the router to fix your problem.

If it is a work network, your IT department will help.

This is a bug in Maverick's Wi-Fi implementation and hopefully will be corrected soon - it never happened to me until I upgraded to Maverick.

To see all available networks, click the Wi-Fi icon in the top right of the screen and select "Open Network Preferences". Next click "Turn Wi-Fi Off", then click "Turn "Wi-Fi On". Now, you can drop down the list of networks from the "Network Name" dropdown item and select the network you want.


Why isn't iTunes shuffle random? This is a problem that has bugged me for the last 5 years, across multiple devices, operating systems and installs of iTunes and iPods.

I have found that the iTunes shuffle feature does not randomly shuffle songs. In fact, I can accurately predict the exact sequence of songs that iTunes will play. This frustrates me to no end because I like to listen to my music randomly, but I have a few favourite songs that I always start out with.

For example, if I select the song 'Somebody That I Used To Know' by Gotye, it will always follow with this exact sequence of songs:

Blame It On The Tetons by Modest Mouse
Girl You Have No Faith In Medicine by The White Stripes
Mombassa by Hans Zimmer, from the Inception Soundtrack
Break of Dawn by Michael Jackson
Missing Words by Mark Ronson and the Business International

The method I use to start the songs does not matter. I have tried selecting the song in iTunes, searching for it and playing it with Coversutra, or searching for it from within iTunes, playing the song and then clearing the search. All three methods will play the exact same sequence of songs.

I thought this might be due to the same seed being used, but I get the same sequence after restarting iTunes or even my computer. The sequence is the same across different days as well. Waiting for the song to finish or hitting next does not change anything either.

I have had this problem (but with different sequences) for as long as I can remember on my Windows PC, MacBook and my iMac. All different versions of iTunes and operating systems, spanning 5 years.

Why does iTunes fail so hard and something that is so easy? Is there any way I can fix this?

The Summary Version

It is random, but the order is only shuffled once, when you turn random play on. If you want to re-shuffle the order, turn random play off and then on again.

The Detailed Version

I don't think this is a bug, it's a feature. Though I can understand how it might seem broken.

iTunes doesn't shuffle the order of the tracks every time you hit play (or any other control button). Another way of saying this is: it uses the same seed for your playlist every time until you tell it to use another seed.

This may seem contrary to the idea of shuffle but it actually serves a purpose: it lets the skip back and skip forward buttons work in a manner that makes sense. I can move back 5 songs while it's on shuffle to hear the song I heard 5 songs ago, and then iTunes plays through all the songs I just heard to get me back to the spot I was at before going back 5 songs.

I do believe the ordering is truly random the first time it's generated. The problem is it's never obvious how to re-generate the ordering after that so your brain, which is really good at recognizing patterns as that's a handy survival skill when you're hunting and gathering, starts to learn the order over time. It starts to find patterns.

You can see this is the case with this little experiment. Set iTunes to shuffle your entire library. Pick a track. Play 5 tracks and write them down. Now pick any other track and let iTunes play one or two songs after that. Now go back to your first track and play from there again. It'll play that track and the same five after it that you wrote down. Changing tracks didn't reseed the random number generator.

The traversal through your tracks is truly random, but that random order isn't refreshed often enough so it starts to feel non-random.

So how do you get iTunes to generate a new shuffle order?

You uncheck and recheck the shuffle button. Doing this causes iTunes to recreate the random traversal path through your playlist (or entire library). It re-seeds the random number generator.

You can convince yourself this is true with a little experiment. Take an album that has track numbers in the meta data and select tracks 1 through 5 then select File -> New Playlist from Selection... from the menu. You'll now have a playlist with 5 songs in it.

Select that playlist and make sure that the shuffle button is unlit and that the track numbers are showing in the window. iTunes will show you the tracks in order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Now hit the shuffle button.

iTunes will show you the tracks out of order. I get: 4, 2, 1, 3, 5.

Now hit the shuffle button to turn it off. And turn it on again.

I now get: 5, 2, 3, 4, 1.

Repeat as many times and needed to convince yourself that iTunes is actually regenerating a random traversal sequence through the tracks in your playlist.

It's the same thing for traversing your entire library: if you never uncheck and recheck the shuffle button the order never gets regenerated so things will start to seem non-random. After I unchecked and rechecked shuffle and began playing my entire library from my original starting track from my second paragraph above I got 5 different songs after it this time. So the order was changed, it's just less obvious when you're looking at your entire library instead of a playlist.

There's a caveat to all of this: iTunes DJ (aka Party Shuffle) works differently. With Party Shuffle you can influence the selection so that there's weighting given to more popular songs in your library. This obviously isn't random playback. So if you want truly random playback you want to shuffle your entire library from the Music view in the sidebar, not the iTunes DJ view. And you want to uncheck and re-check that shuffle button before each listening session to keep it truly unpredictable.

CNet did a study a while back that proved that iTunes Shuffle plays songs by specific studios, studios who had partnerships with Apple, more often.

So if you're wondering why you hear ###### pop songs more often when you use shuffle in iTunes, now you know why.


Cleaning Chromium based browser (Citrio) I'm currently trying to "clean" the Citrio browser of the extensions that are visible (maybe more that are hidden, but I'll investgate later).

These extensions cannot be deleted by simply clicking on the trashcan icon that is normally beside the extension. So I opted to delete the extension's files manually. I've gone as far as going into the Preference file and deleting any code related to the extension's ID.

I restart Citrio, and I get remnants of FILE_NOT_FOUND extensions across the Citrio browser.

In the picture below there is no trash can icon, and with no image or data files to go on, all that's left is to remove the last empty shell of the extension's entry in the chrome://extensions

If anyone can provide a way to remove the entry, thanks in advance!

Source followed for removing code in the Preferences file.
http://www.kuijjer.com/post/1367862444/how-to-remove-a-google-chrome-extension-on-mac-os

Install the extensions: Extensions Manager (aka Switcher)

Removes one-click plug-ins :)

Sorry, for this late answer, but this will solve your Problem:

You need to navigate to %AppData%\Local\CatalinaGroup\Citrio\Application\50.0.2661.271\Extensions
modify "external_extensions.json" and delete every crx-File, except of those you want to keep. :D


Can't Access Previous Purchases under Family Sharing I recently switched to Family Sharing. Previously, we all had our separate iCloud accounts for contact syncing, calendaring, reminders, etc. and shared a single account for out store purchases.

Now that we've family sharing setup, besides still using separate iCloud accounts for the above purposes, everyone started using their own iCloud accounts for their store purchases as well.

When I go to Settings > Apple ID > Family Sharing > Share Purchases, I see that the old account we used to share for our store purchases is listed as to be shared among family members but when I recently tried to download a past purchase with that account, I repurchased it(I was logged in to the store with my own iCloud account).

What should I do if I want to be able to access my previous purchases?

Finally got around this pesky problem. And actually it was pretty straightforward!

All I had to do was add that old shared account as a separate family member. Hence now everybody only uses their respective iCloud ID for their personal stuff and purchases while sharing their old/new purchases.

This might not be a solution for you since family sharing only accepts 6 family members at the most as of now although there isn't any other solution currently.


Can macOS High Sierra write to NTFS external drives? I have updated my MacBook Pro to macOS High Sierra 10.13. I previously used Paragon NTFS but now it's not working so I uninstalled it. However I noticed I can still read and write to my external hard drive without any other app.

Does this mean macOS High Sierra natively supports writing to NTFS external drives?

You actually can, and I just did it.

In short:

note the label of your NTFS volume.
edit /etc/fstab even if it doesn't exist, e.g. with sudo vi /etc/fstab
Add this line for every NTFS volume: LABEL="VOLUME_NAME_WITHOUT_QUOTES" none ntfs rw,auto,nobrowse
Re-plug your drive.

You will not see the drive in Finder's "Devices", because this option requires nobrowse to work, but it is mounted in /Volumes/<ntfs_label>

It's impossible to write to a NTFS drive on High Sierra without a third-party solution. You might have FUSE installed. To check if you have it installed go to the System Preferences and check if you see the FUSE icon there.


iPhone 5 always asks for username when connect to Wifi (I'm using wifi from a personal access point in my room, of which the security type is "WPA/WPA2 Personal" (it's what I see in network settings on my mac). Normally it just requires a password to login, no username is required.

My issue is that when I use my iPhone 5 (iOS 7.0.4) to connect to that wifi, it always asks for both username and password. I tried leaving the "username" field blank and fill in the "password" field only, but it says "Unable to connect to...".

This issue happens only on my iPhone and doesn't happen on any other devices such as Macbook, iMac or iPad.

The problem is that iOS is detecting your network as an Enterprise network that requires username and password.
The work-around:
Manually enter the network type into iOS. To do this with iOS 7.1:
Settings / Wi-Fi / Choose a network, and select "Other".
Put in the name (SSID) as it is advertised on the previous screen.
Under Security, choose WPA2 or WPA (try both). Do not choose the "Enterprise" network. Enter the password.
My experience is you have to try 3 or 4 times before it works; don't know why, maybe fat fingers.

Change the router settings to only allow WPA.  It is most likely set to Automatic which can choose WPA or WPA2.


Cycle through windows with keyboard in Adobe Acrobat I use Adobe Acrobat Pro a lot, and often keep multiple documents open. Does anyone know of a way of cycling through the open windows of this application without resorting to the mouse?

(Cmd+` (backtick) does not work.)

I use OS X 10.6.4 on a 13" MacBook Pro.

You can try Cmd + F6. It's working on both Mac OS & PC.

On Mac OS X 10.11.1 with Acrobat Pro DC installed try controltab.


Switching apps: how to show just one window? I've noticed one thing that annoys me about switching apps using the dock - if I have say, 5 different PDFs and 5 Firefox windows open, sometimes I'd like to switch back and forth between one pdf and one Firefox window.  If I click the app icons on the dock, it brings all the windows for that app forward.  Is there a way to force it to only bring the most recently active window forward?  I've developed workarounds of course, but it'd be nice to have this.

I'm using Mavericks, if it makes a difference.

Thanks!

There's dreadfully few tweaks that can be applied to Dock, and none of the ones I know can modify the behavior of a single click on an app icon. What I would do in this situation is to assign a special gesture, say a four-finger click, to an applescript. The applescript will perform the task you want, which, in this case, is to bring up only the current window of the app under cursor.

To do this, you don't know need to know how to write a script - the script is here. You however need to know how to create custom gestures, enable Accessibility, etc. The best way to do this is the app BetterTouchTool.

tell application "System Events" to tell application process "Dock" to tell list 1
    set targetDockIcon to first UI element whose value of attribute "AXSubrole" ¬
    is not "AXSeparatorDockItem" and its value of attribute "AXSelected" is true
    tell targetDockIcon to perform action "AXShowMenu"
    tell (first menu item whose value of attribute "AXMenuItemMarkChar" is "✓") of ¬
    menu 1 of targetDockIcon to perform action "AXPress"
end tell

This script essentially find the app icon under cursor, right-click it for you, and click the window item with a check mark to its left. You will see the contextual menu flash for a brief second.

This script is tested on Yosemite.

CMD+tab does that too, switches between two most recent windows.


Is it possible to change opacity of an application window? Is it possible to change the opacity/alpha value of a program window such as preview or chrome? I know this was possible in Linux by editing some gnome shell file. Is there anything similar in OS X

Edit: Dec 2018: It seems that a new replacement for Afloat is out called Deskovery,
  You should enter your email here to join the beta program:
  https://www.neomobili.com/products/deskovery/
  And browse the blog to figure out which beta version you want: https://www.neomobili.com/blog/
  Downloads for all versions of this app are kind of hidden here: https://www.neomobili.com/files/

The previously mentioned Afloat is not working anymore on El Capitan and Sierra since both deprecate applications using code injection techniques.

There seems to be no direct equivalent for this SIMBL using Afloat.

If you now need just a 'mock version', does a mock picture suffice your needs? These needs are a bit underdetermined.

However, you may find a number of possible alternatives available that might offer a somewhat similar functionality:

LayerX
Duplicate-any-windows
Overlay
Overlay2
Uberlayer
GluePrint

These are not tested as to whether they may be combinable.

The question is about setting the opacity for a single application, but to globally set transparency off, go to System Preferences -> Accessibility -> Display.  Then make sure that "Reduce transparency" is selected. I found this here:
https://www.tekrevue.com/tip/reduce-transparency-effects-os-x-yosemite/
for Yosemite, but it works in El Capitan.


Which Transcend Jetdrive Lite fits into MB Pro 13" early 2011? I want to expand my MB Pro diskspace by a seamless SD-card. There are different Jetdrive Lite versions, but they're specified for the MB Pro 13" back to late 2012 only.

Any experiences with MB Pro 13" early 2011?

Bought a JetDrive Lite 130 and it fits seamlessly into the MB Pro 13" early 2011 card slot and is working fine.

http://in.transcend-info.com/Apple/jetdrivelite/

The answers are given in the table at the bottom of the link...


No voice feedback when using Siri with American accent in iOS 9.0.2 I'm using Siri with American accent in iOS 9.0.2. But it doesn't have voice feedback, even though in navigation mode in Maps. Once I switch to British accent, Siri speaks. Is that a bug for Siri in recent iOS update?

Siri and "Speech" on iOS seem to be tangled since iOS 9. Here's how to fix it:

Go to Settings -> General -> Accessibility -> Speech -> Voices -> English -> and download both "Siri Female (Enhanced)" and "Alex".

Note: Make sure to stay in the settings app while the download is completing. If you leave the app or go to another page within settings, the download will cancel.

Let me know if that works ;).

I had the same problem. Today after updating the ios the American Siri voice is back and working.


Received a FaceTime call from unknown person I have received a FaceTime call from unknown source. I'm not sure who this person is, nor do I know the caller's email.

What can I do? I don't want unknown people contacting me. It was from an iCloud email address.

Block that caller! And if he or she calls again just contact Apple and they will help you resolve the problem! Just follow my steps and you will be fine!


Why do I have to "renew Touch ID purchases" all the time? I have an iPhone 5S, and I have automatic app updates disabled as I like to manage these myself. However, when I do, I have to enter my Apple ID password every time?

If I make new purchases, it seems to go through with the Touch ID; however, if I update an app I am forced to manually enter my password.

I have the 7.0.1 update and apple store purchases under the General => Fingerprint section in Settings, which is turned on.

I have searched the apple discussion forums and the common answer seems to be the update. It's not that.

So short question is, why do I have to actually "Confirm Apple ID password for  to renew Touch ID purchases" all the time?

How can I have it use TouchID as I have it set in the settings?

Security, if someone else puts his finger into touch ID, he could purchase everything. Or if someone logs in with his apple id on your phone, you could just buy things without knowing his password.

Touch ID isn't linked to your Apple ID, but to your phone

Prior to the launch of the iPhone 5s, I went on record on the iMore Show with my one desire for the then much rumored fingerprint sensor. If it arrived and didn't allow me to buy apps and content from iTunes by touching my finger to it, then I wasn't that interested. Delight then, that Apple took the stage, announced Touch ID, and that we could use it to buy things. Delight, quickly followed by epic frustration.

Why frustration? Because I still find myself entering my Apple ID password at present twice a day, minimum. I'm referring to a message which pops up just after hitting the install button on a new app from the App Store. It says;

Confirm Apple ID Password for "........." to Renew Touch ID Purchases

The only instance I've come across elsewhere on the iPhone 5s that specifically requests passcode input over Touch ID is when you restart the device. That's understandable, but it also doesn't require entering a 20+ character password. I have a long and complex Apple ID password – as should everyone else – which is precisely why I was so excited when Apple announced Touch ID support for the stores. I'm lazy. And entering a 20+ character password every time you want to download an app gets tiresome.


Microsoft Remote Desktop through ssh-forwarded port I have a situation where I provide access to a Windows server by forwarding the remote desktop port 3389 with ssh from my Mac to the "inside" of an otherwise inacessible network.

I can now connect with the Windows version of Remote Desktop, but the Mac version of Remote Desktop time out and do not provide access.  This is even when using the IP-number as the host to connect to.

Any idea why this happens and how I can work around it?

Don't forward local port 3389, various versions of Remote Desktop are too smart for their own good.

My usual steps involve forwarding local 3390 to remote 3389. Then, in MacRDC I use: localhost:3390 as the address to connect too.

I don't know if you're using anything to assist in the ssh connection setup, but from the command line, it would be something like:

ssh -L 3390:172.16.5.32:3389 jason@remote.net

Where;
 - 3390 is the local forwarding port on my box.
 - 172.16.5.32 is the remote windows host. and;
 - 3389 is the Remote Desktop Port (obviously).

Forwarding to port 3389 is bound to give you trouble. The system will recognize what you're trying to do and basically short circuit itself. This is the drawback of DIY Remote Desktop, imho.


Is it possible to upgrade from Java 5 to Java 7 on OS X 10.5.8 - Leopard? I'm using OS X 10.5.8 - Leopard.
I updated Java via Software Update and the newest Java I could have installed in MacBook was Java 5.
This is the screenshot:

Can I somehow update Java 5 to Java 7?
If so, how can I do it?

It seems that Java 7 will not be provided for Leopard (or even Snow Leopard), and I haven't seen any work-arounds....

Here are the official requirements and Apple's update page which matches what you got in Software Update.

I think that there is no way to update it up from 15, I have a iMac G5 and it has 10.5.8, and I couldn't find a way to update it because the system doesn't meet the requirements.


Rubberized stylus, not moving smooth on iPad glass, any tricks? I have a Targus stylus for my iPad, with a rubber tip.

This tip, however, does not move smoothly over the glass on the iPad, but seems to have too high friction. It didn't have this when I bought it, and I also have a different stylus that is much smaller, also with a rubber tip, that still moves smoothly over the glass.

The large one, however, gets "stuck" on the screen. Not like glue "stuck", just doesn't move as smoothly as I'd like.

What tricks can I use to get it back to how it was when I bought it? Has it accrued fat from my fingers or something like that I can wash off, or are there other things I can do? Has anyone experienced this and solved it?

I think most of these answers are pure speculation and the long term effects on your iPad's screen are at question.

I would suggest that you simply look to replace the stylus as it has evidently worn out. It may be that they are not very durable products, but I certainly wouldn't recommend trying to hack a solution over just buying a new stylus.

Push the rubber tip in so you have a hard end, making you able to use it easily.


How can I rip DVD subtitles to SRT format (or something else that iPads can understand)? Title says it all. I've used HandBrake, Subler, VideoMonkey, and RipIt. I'm familiar with mencoder. None of them seem to be able to rip the subtitles from a DVD and then get the soft subtitles to the iPad.

This is by no means a complete answer but if the DVD you are ripping contains Closed Captioning subtitles then HandBrake gets you this for free.

Simply add the subtitles as a track. You'll be able to clearly see what must be burned in and what doesn't have to be by the options that have been greyed out.

I actually really like this option and use it whenever I can because different software can display these subtitles in different formats and all of the Apple playback software that I've used does a really nice job of displaying it readably and beautifully. I should also note that unchecking the Burned In check box won't make any difference on an iPad.

The problem is with bitmap subtitles. Essentially, I have found no software that can preserve alpha transparency when they rip bitmap subtitles and thus they require burn in to the resultant file if you want to use them directly in any Apple playback software. If you want to go this route, I have enough space to simply rip it twice, once with subtitles and once without.

What you're left with is a variety of OCR techniques that are shoddy at best as far as what I've seen on the Mac. I have heard good things about SubRip if you have any access to Windows.

Another option is to download an open SRT file and add it manually to the container. You could search for these via traditional means or give opensubtitles.org a try. YMMV. As long as the container format you're ripping to is mp4 (it should be if you're ripping for Apple devices), you can use Subler to add the external SRT track in post.

I try to use the free DVD Ripper software Handbrake or Avidemux to extract SRT subtitles from DVD movies, but both of them only allows me to rip the DVD file with the subtitles encoded in the video. But what I really want to do is only ripping the subtitles and not the video. Then, I find a paid application called Pavtube ByteCopy, it is quite simple to use with a friendly GUI interface, I use the program to successfully to extract the SRT file not only from DVD movies but alsoBlu-ray movies.


Hide Siri's window on macOS Sierra After asking Siri a question on macOS Sierra -- her response window just stays pinned in the upper right corner.

Is there a keyboard shortcut or another siri command to hide that window without having to click the small "x" button?  Maybe a way to make it automatically close after some time has passed?

Without Type to Siri enabled, you may close the Siri window at any time by pressing the ESC key. However, I am unaware of a way to automatically close Siri after some time has passed or by using the keyboard with Type to Siri.

there is a workaround for that which actually works pretty awesome. i hope its ok to post the link:

http://www.macworld.com/article/3096187/macs/how-to-make-siri-activate-when-you-say-hey-siri-to-your-mac-running-macos-sierra.html


Possible to play HEVC(x265) files on ipad? I tried playing some HEVC videos on my iPad 3 running iOS 9.2.1, but was unable to do so using any player(I tried Infuse,VLC and some others), only audio plays and video is like stuck. I was wondering if there was any way I could play such videos on my iPad without reencoding them to h.264.

Don't forget that HEVC (H.265) has higher playback requirements than H.264, and you are attempting playback on a fairly old iPad.  It is not going to be able to keep up with what is playable on the latest iPad or iPhone.  Don't despair over your older hardware, every computer has its limits, if you encoded a 12-bits-per-pixel 4K 60fps video in HEVC, it wouldn't play smoothly on any iOS hardware Apple has out now.

So ...  Find the limits of your hardware.   Encode something small, get it playing, then encode larger and larger samples until you hit your iPad's limit.

First, HEVC on an iPad using VLC Player is possible - I am successfully encoding HEVC videos to play with VLC player on my iPhone and iPad.  I am using and recommend ffmpeg, which is downloadable as a binary (so you don't have to learn how to compile stuff) here:  https://ffmpeg.org/download.html

Encode a small 120-pixel-wide video in H.265 with this ffmpeg command:

ffmpeg -i Input.avi -c:v libx265 -preset medium -x265-params crf=24 -r 24 -vf scale=-2:'if(gt(ih,120),120,ih)' -c:a aac -strict -2 -b:a 64k -ss 00:02:00 -t 10 Output.mp4

This will create a small, ten-second video that is 120xsomething that would play easily on your iPad3.  If this doesn't work, then it's not a weak cpu issue, perhaps its your transfer mechanism.  Delete the h265 media from VLC player, and try copying the h265 media to the VLC player three different ways: copy to VLC app via iTunes, use VLC app itself to download the h265 media file, and use a third-party file manager, such as Documents by Readdle, to download the media and then send it to VLC via "Open in".  Hopefully you will find it playing with one method.

Once you find a way to get H265 to play in your VLC Player app, encode the video in larger sizes by replacing the "120" in the above command with larger sizes, I recommend going 120 -> 240 -> 360 -> 480.   Once you hit a limit that stutters, then go back down one size, and that's what your iPad 3 can handle.

Remove the 10-second limitation and encode your entire media with ffmpeg using this command:

ffmpeg -i Input.avi -c:v libx265 -preset medium -x265-params crf=24 -r 24 -vf scale=-2:'if(gt(ih,120),120,ih)' -c:a aac -strict -2 -b:a 64k Output.mp4

Finally, if you want slightly better compression, you can change the "-preset medium" to "-preset slow" or even "-preset slower" to have it spend more CPU and time squeezing out another 5%-10% out of the file size for the same video quality.

Good luck!!