Apple released Photos for Mac as a replacement for iPhoto earlier this year. For most people, the transition was smooth and Photos has been a great upgrade to a much more modern and streamlined app. After using the new app for several months without issue, I recently ran into a problem that prevented my iPhone photos from showing up on my Mac. It seemed to start a couple weeks ago, as I noticed my most recent pictures were missing from the Photos library. I hadn’t changed any settings to cause it – Photo Stream was just suddenly not working on my Mac anymore.

If you’re experiencing this issue and want to get My Photo Stream to start working on your Mac again, the fix should be easy. But first, confirm that My Photo Stream is enabled on your Mac by going to the Photos app, then Photos > Preferences in the menu bar. Click the iCloud tab and ensure the My Photo Stream box is checked. Second, confirm the same on your iPhone or iPad by going to Settings > iCloud > Photos. The My Photo Stream option should be turned on there. If both of these are already set correctly, follow the steps below:

1. On your Mac, quit the Photos app.
2. Launch the Activity Monitor app, which is located under Utilities in the Applications folder.
3. In Activity Monitor, search for “photos” in the upper-right to filter through the list of running processes.
4. There should be a few rows left on the screen. For “Photos Agent” and each of the ones starting with “com.apple” click on the row to select it, and then click the X icon in the upper-left.
5. A confirmation message will appear. Click “Force Quit” to end the process.
6. Once all of the processes mentioned in step 4 are gone, you can quit Activity Monitor.
7. Open the Photos app again and, after a few moments, all of your latest photos should start importing from My Photo Stream.

If you’ve updated to Yosemite and noticed a significant slowdown in performance, you’re not alone. Like most new OS X releases, its advancements also require more computing power than the previous version. But that doesn’t mean your older Mac is out of luck… there’s a quick fix that is sure to make your machine more responsive. You’re going to have to be willing to part with some of Yosemite’s fancy visual effects, though!

First, make sure you’ve given your Mac a day or two after upgrading to let it sort out all the new changes. Even though Yosemite is ready for you to use, it’s still doing some things behind the scenes. For example, Spotlight search tends to re-index all of your files after a big upgrade, which can take a while depending on how much data is on your computer. If your Mac is still sluggish, it’s time to give up transparency.

How to speed up Yosemite:

1. Launch System Preferences.
2. Click on the Accessibility icon (4th row).
3. From the list on the left, select Display.
4. Check the box next to “Reduce transparency.”

Done! You’ll notice the menu bar, Dock, and your app windows are now opaque instead of see-through. While it may not be as pretty, it’s a lot less stressful on your Mac’s graphics card and RAM, and will be a lot quicker as you click and drag windows around.

To give some quick background to this tip, in previous versions of iOS (6 and older) the ability to delete and forward individual text messages was very apparent. When you were in an SMS or iMessage conversation in the Messages app, there was an Edit button in the upper-right corner. When this was tapped, two more buttons were revealed at the bottom of the screen for Delete and Forward, along with checkboxes next to each message so you could select which ones you wanted. Pretty easy to find, right?

In iOS 7, the Edit button has been replaced with the Contact button, which reveals additional options to get in touch with that person (FaceTime, voice call, Contacts entry, etc.). Admittedly, most users are more likely to use this functionality more often than the old Edit button. But with that move came the apparent removal of deleting and forwarding messages. Alas, it’s still there! You just have to know where to look… or tap. Here’s how:

1. Open a conversation in the Messages app and find a specific message that you would like to delete or forward.
2. Tap and hold that message bubble until a pop-up bubble is displayed that shows “Copy,” “More…” and “Speak” as options. Tap “More…”
3. When you do, you’ll see the familiar screen with a checkbox next to each message. Select the messages you want, and at the bottom there will be icons for Delete and Forward.

Mac users have a bunch of different ways to prevent others from snooping on their Mac when they need to step away for a few minutes. Some like to set up a hot corner that starts their screensaver. Others like to click a menu bar icon that turns off their display. There are even some 3rd party apps that add this functionality. The problem with these approaches is that they cut off some background processes or require system preferences to be configured a certain way. These seem like workarounds rather than real solutions.

An even better way to lock your Mac’s screen is to press a quick keyboard shortcut that instantly shows a login screen without closing any of the things you were working on. It requires just a couple minutes to set up initially – here’s how:

Lock Screen Service

1. Launch Automator from your Applications folder.
2. Select “Service” as the document type.
3. Select “Utilities” from the list on the left, then double-click “Run Shell Script” in the next column.
   
4. On the top-right side of the screen, adjust the drop-down menus so the statement reads: “Service receives [no input] in [any application]”
5. Copy the following command into the large text box that appears:
   

   /System/Library/CoreServices/"Menu Extras"/User.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession -suspend

   
6. Go to File > Save and name your service “Lock Screen”. Once saved, you can now quit Automator.

Lock Screen Keyboard Shortcut

1. Launch System Preferences and go to the Keyboard pane.
2. Next, select the “Keyboard Shortcuts” tab. From the list on the left, select “Application Shortcuts”. Click on the plus (+) button below to add your new shortcut.
3. In the dialog box we’ll want to leave “All Applications” selected in the first menu. Enter “Lock Screen” as the Menu Title. Please note this has to be exactly the same name you entered when saving the service in Automator. Finally, enter your keyboard shortcut. Let’s go with Command+Shift+L.
   
4. Click Add and you’re all done!

Now when you press your keyboard shortcut (Command+Shift+L), the Mac login screen will immediately be displayed. You’re still technically logged in and processes such as large downloads will continue in the background. But you can leave your Mac unattended without worry – no one will be able to access your account until you enter your password. When you do, everything on your desktop will be there just as you left it!

When it comes to technology, the reality is that no device or operating system is 100% impenetrable. However, the last decade has shown us that OS X does a pretty good job of keeping users out of harm’s way. In fact, a vast majority of Mac security vulnerabilities come from third party software, not OS X itself. Nonetheless, there are 5 simple things any Mac user can do to help make sure they’re protected from the latest threats:

1. Disable Java in your browser

Most Mac users have no use for Java. It’s a plugin still used by some web applications, but those are becoming more and more rare. Since it’s also responsible for a huge number of Mac security exploits, most of us are better off just disabling it. Here’s how:

Safari: Go to Preferences > Security and uncheck the box next to “Enable Java”
Firefox: In the menu bar, go to Tools > Add-ons > Plugins and click the Disable button next to Java.
Chrome: Enter chrome://plugins/ in the URL bar and click the Disable link under Java.

2. Disable “Open safe files”

If you’re a Safari user, there’s a feature that makes downloading files very convenient by opening them automatically. It’s also a security risk. Let’s take the safe route and disable this by going to Safari Preferences > General. Uncheck the box next to “Open ‘safe’ files after downloading.”

3. Enable OS X’s Firewall

Mac OS X has had a built-in firewall for many years, but it’s never been turned on by default. The Firewall allows users to control a Mac’s network connections on a per-application basis, which helps block unwanted programs from gaining access. If you’re running 10.5 Leopard or later, the Firewall can be configured by going to System Preferences > Security > Firewall.

4. Standard user accounts

When you first set up your Mac, the user account you create is always an administrator. Most people end up using this account to store their files, install applications, etc. This isn’t necessarily a problem, but it is considered best practice to only use administrator accounts when making changes to the system. Instead, for daily use, it’s recommended that you create a second user account with standard privileges.

If you already have an administrator account that you’ve been using for a while, it’s easy to create a new admin account and then demote your current account to standard. Sound complicated? It’s not! Just go to System Preferences > Users & Groups and click on the lock icon in the lower-left corner. Once you enter your password, click the plus (+) button to add a new account. Select Administrator as the account type along with the other required information. Remember this username and password because you’re going to need it somewhat often. Next, select your old account from the list on the left and uncheck the box next to “Allow user to administer this computer.” Confirm the changes and you’ll be all set!

For the most part, a standard account will function the same – but when making major system-wide changes it will require an administrator’s credentials. Just enter the username and password of the new admin account and you’re good to go. By adding this extra validation step, it helps users remember to stop and evaluate whether something asking for an admin password is legitimate or malicious.

5. Install all software updates

Some users get annoyed by constant notifications to update their software. It may be tempting, but these updates are almost always for our benefit. They include bug fixes and plug security holes that hackers may exploit to gain access to our systems.

In OS X, it’s easy to stay up to date by going to the Apple menu, then to Software Update. If you’re running 10.8 Mountain Lion or later, all of your Mac App Store apps will update here as well. For other third party applications, it’s a good idea to enable automatic updates inside those apps, if it’s something the developer offers. Software like Adobe Flash and Microsoft Office, for example, have a surprisingly large number of vulnerabilities that get fixed with their updates, so you don’t want to skip any.

Bonus: Gatekeeper

Mountain Lion users have a new security feature – Gatekeeper – at their disposal to prevent malicious software from being installed on their Macs. One of our previous articles extensively covered what Gatekeeper is and how to use it.

While Gatekeeper is a marquee feature of OS X Mountain Lion, there’s still some confusion about what it does and how it affects Mac users in everyday use. To summarize in a single sentence, Gatekeeper helps protect you from inadvertently installing malicious software on your Mac. But there’s a lot more to Gatekeeper than that basic description, so let’s explore why it exists and how it works!

Why Apple created Gatekeeper

Gatekeeper is Apple’s answer to trojan apps that trick users into installing software they don’t actually want. Trojans are a growing problem for Macs, Windows PCs, Android phones, and nearly all software platforms that let users install software from any source. These aren’t viruses that install on their own – they rely on the user’s ignorance or uncertainty to gain access to the system.

Since iOS only allows users to install Apple-approved apps from the App Store, iPhones and iPads are not at risk for these kinds of threats. Macs, of course, have an App Store too – but it’s not the only place users can find and install software. We can download apps from anywhere on the internet.

Rather than lock down the Mac like they’ve done with iOS, Apple took a different approach in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion by introducing Gatekeeper. With Gatekeeper, your Mac will be safer and more secure without taking any control away from you.

How Gatekeeper works

So now that we know why Gatekeeper exists, how does it work? In general, it’s not something you have to worry about maintaining. Gatekeeper works in the background and only alerts you when there’s a problem. But depending on how you have Gatekeeper configured, those alerts could come at different times.

In System Preferences under the Security & Privacy section, there are 3 options under the “Allow applications downloaded from” heading.

• Mac App Store: Selecting this option makes your Mac behave like an iOS device. It will only allow software downloaded from the Mac App Store to be installed. All other apps will be denied if you try to launch them. This is the most secure choice, but also the most restrictive.
• Mac App Store and identified developers: Mountain Lion’s default setting allows your Mac to install apps from the Mac App Store, plus any apps that you’ve downloaded from the web – as long as they meet one important criteria: The developer needs to be registered with Apple to confirm their legitimacy. More on this below.
• Anywhere: This gives you free reign to install whatever you want, from wherever you want – just like all the previous versions of OS X.

You might be wondering what an “identified developer” is and why that is the default option Apple chose for Gatekeeper. Developers who want to distribute their software outside of the Mac App Store are encouraged to sign up with Apple to get a certificate they can use to sign their apps. This way, if an app has been maliciously modified by someone other than the developer before the user downloads it, the signature will be broken and the app won’t install. On the flip side, it also gives Apple the ability to blacklist developers who intentionally distribute malware. Once Apple flips the switch on a rogue developer, Mountain Lion users will be protected from installing that developer’s sketchy apps in the future.

It’s important to note Apple’s developer ID program is not an approvals process like the Mac App Store. Any developer can get a certificate immediately without Apple ever seeing their app. It’s just a way for Apple to protect users if a developer is later found to be doing something they shouldn’t.

How to configure Gatekeeper

That “Anywhere” setting sure sounds good for you expert users and control freaks, right? Wait! Let’s not jump back into old habits just yet. This option leaves the door wide open for trojans to be installed without your knowledge. It’s much safer to leave Gatekeeper on its default setting (“Mac App Store and identified developers”) so you know everything you install is legit.

But what about those apps whose developers haven’t registered with Apple to get a certificate? If you’re confident this app is from a safe and trusted source, it’s easy to manually override Gatekeeper on a case-by-case basis without changing the default setting. Just right-click (or control+click) the app and select Open from the menu. Gatekeeper will still display a warning, but it will also give you the option to install the app anyway. Once installed, Gatekeeper won’t bother you about that app again. Happy user, happy Mac… everyone wins!

Occasionally, when I leave a WiFi area like home or work and need to access AT&T’s data network, my iPhone will refuse to connect to the web. The status bar at the top shows strong reception (often 4 or 5 bars) and voice calls still come through, but apps that reply on an internet connection fail to load any data. Safari, Mail, Facebook, Twitter, Sirius XM, Pandora and others all act like the phone’s networking capabilities have been turned off.

In my experience, this issue surfaces sporadically – maybe once every month or so. Other iPhone owners, however, have reported weekly or even daily occurrences. In addition, it does not appear to be an AT&T or even U.S.-specific issue since some international users face similar troubles. While a permanent solution is currently unknown (to the best of my knowledge, at least), it’s typically a quick fix to get connectivity back.

If your iPhone is intermittently losing its network connection in a good cell coverage area, try these troubleshooting steps to restore internet access:

Toggle Airplane Mode

Airplane mode is the most convenient way to power an iPhone’s networking chips on and off. Just go to the Settings app and toggle the slider to the “On” position. Wait a few seconds for iOS to disable the cell radio, then switch it back to “Off.” Your iPhone will start searching for a signal and, hopefully, get its data connection back.

Hard Reset

While Airplane mode works some of the time, more often than not, a hard reset will be required. Hold the Power and Home buttons down at the same time until your iPhone’s screen goes completely black and the Apple logo appears. This is the real way to “restart” an iPhone, whereas holding the Power button and swiping the “power off” slider basically just puts it in a deep sleep. Typically the hard reset process takes 1-2 minutes and will restore internet connectivity for most users experiencing this particular issue.

Reset Settings

Still having trouble connecting, even though your iPhone is showing a strong signal from the cell network? This is where troubleshooting becomes more than a minor inconvenience. The next step is to go to Settings > Reset > Reset Network Settings. Keep in mind this will remove all of your saved WiFi networks and passwords. After you’ve reset your networking settings, perform a hard reset (as described in the previous tip). If that brings no success, repeat this procedure using the Reset All Content and Settings option on the same screen. This will remove all of your apps and data, but you’ll be able to get them back if you’re an iCloud user or use iTunes to back up your device.

Restore Factory Settings

At this point a more serious issue may be at play – one that goes beyond the intermittent but easily solvable issue this article aims to fix. Your next step would be to restore your iPhone to factory settings. To do this, connect your phone to your Mac or PC and open iTunes. Select your iPhone under the Devices list, go to the Summary tab, and click the Restore button. Back up your settings and data when prompted and continue with the restore. At the end of the process, you will have the opportunity to load your backed up information back onto the iPhone.

If after performing all of these troubleshooting steps your iPhone still won’t connect to the data network, you’ve unfortunately done all you can do on your own. You’ll have to contact Apple tech support or visit an Apple Store to potentially get a replacement. Good luck!

Have you experienced this issue with your iPhone? What have you done to try to resolve it?

An interesting issue has been plaguing some Mac users running OS X 10.7 Lion. When browsing in Column view, Finder sometimes won’t let you sort files and folders alphabetically by name. Even if the correct setting is selected, Finder simply refuses to comply. Luckily, there is a quick fix for those affected by this problem.

Lion’s new way of arranging and sorting in Finder

In previous versions of Mac OS X, the Arrange By function in Finder simply changed the order in which files and folders were displayed based on the user’s selection. In OS X 10.7 Lion, there are two ways to sort: Arrange By and Sort By. Arrange By now groups files and folders into categories. For example, if you select Arrange By > Kind, all of the items in the current folder will be separated into groups for Documents, Images, PDFs, etc. The same is true if you choose to arrange by Date, Size, Application, etc.

Kind of handy, right? So what if you’ve got arranged groups of files that you want listed in order of size? That’s where the new Sort By feature comes in. When holding down the Option key, the Arrange By menu changes to Sort By. You’ll see many of he same options as Arrange By – Sort By merely reorders the items that are already contained in the groups.

Replicating the issue

With that quick overview out of the way, let’s get back to the issue of sorting not working in Finder’s Column view. It all comes down to a conflict between Arrange By and Sort By. Even though you’ve got your Arrange By menu set to Name, the Sort By function is likely overriding it with another setting. Here’s how you can replicate the issue on any Mac running Lion:

1. Open a Finder window and select View > as Columns in the menu bar.
2. Go to View > Arrange By > Kind in the menu bar
3. While holding down the Option key, go to View > Sort By > Date Added. Notice the order of the files and how they are categorized.
4. Next, release the Option key and go to View > Arrange By > Name.

Whoops! That didn’t go as planned, did it? As you can see, your files are not arranged alphabetically by name. The groups are gone, but the files are still sorted by date!

The solution

Three easy steps resolve the issue:

1. Open the folder you’re having trouble with in Finder.
2. Go to View > Arrange By > None in the menu bar.
3. Hold the Option key and go to View > Sort By > Name.

Done! It’s interesting that this behavior only occurs in Column view and not Icon, List, or Cover Flow. One would expect Arrange By > Name to override whatever setting Sort By previously had, but that is not the case. In the future, it might be easier to leave Arrange By set to None and only use the Sort By setting to rearrange files. This behaves exactly like Arrange By used to in OS X versions prior to Lion.

Thanks to the folks over at Two Dollar Tuesday – a new site that features a fresh crop of discounted Mac apps every week – we have a bundle of three quality Mac App Store titles to give away for free! Together, these apps are normally worth almost $40. Learn more about each app below, plus find out how to enter to win for free!

Dropzone

Original price: $13.99
Dropzone makes it easier and quicker to do things on your Mac. For example, you can set up actions for moving and working with files, connecting to FTP, installing apps, creating custom shortcuts, and much more – all via drag & drop. If you’re a power user, you can even program your own extensions to give Dropzone additional functionality.

Socialite

Original price: $9.99
Socialite is for all the social networking addicts out there. It’s an app that gives you convenient access to all of your accounts and services, making it easier for you to stay in touch with others and post status updates, photos, links, etc.

Compartments

Original price: $14.99
Compartments lets you catalog just about everything you own so you can protect it in case of damage or loss. It organizes your belongings, keeps track of warranties, and generates insurance claim reports. To learn more, check out our review of Compartments from a couple years ago.

Win a free bundle of Mac software!

One lucky MacYourself reader will win free licenses for all 3 of the apps in this bundle – Dropzone, Socialite and Compartments! To enter, please leave a comment below, along with a valid email address (this is how we will contact you). In order to avoid spam filter issues, please type a coherent sentence saying you’d like a chance to win. Make sure you have access to the Mac App Store before entering. Multiple entries will be deleted, so please only add one comment per person. And finally, don’t worry if your comment doesn’t appear on the site immediately — it might be awaiting moderation and will show up shortly.

The winner will be chosen at random based on the comment number he or she happens to be. The lucky guy or girl will be announced on this page, so save this article’s URL and be sure to check back later. All entries must be made by Friday, May 25, 2012 at 11:59pm eastern U.S. time. In the meantime, check out the weekly Mac app discounts at Two Dollar Tuesday. Good luck!

UPDATE – May 26, 2012:
Congratulations to our winner, Edmund! His comment was randomly selected and he has been given free copies of Dropzone, Socialite, and Compartments for Mac! Thanks to everyone who entered!

Have you ever watched music videos on TV? If so, you’re familiar with that small block of text that gets shown for a few seconds when a video first starts playing. It’s got information about the song and is a nice touch that makes the viewing experience so much better. It turns out you can get that same effect on your Mac while listening to music in iTunes!

No matter what application you’re using, you can get a quick glance at the details of the song that’s “now playing” right when it starts. Depending on your Mac’s version of OS X and the type of song information you want to see, there are a couple ways to do this.

Secret iTunes Notifications

Did you know this is already a hidden feature of iTunes in OS X Lion? All you have to do is enable it in Terminal (Applications > Utilities) with this command:

defaults write com.apple.dock itunes-notifications -bool YES

Press Enter, then type killall Dock and press Enter again. This will restart the Dock so the change can take effect. Now when a song starts playing in iTunes, a small bubble will appear over the iTunes Dock icon that contains the artist and song title. After a few seconds it will fade away seamlessly. Pretty cool!

If you ever feel the need to disable this feature and go back to normal, just run the commands again – but replace YES with NO.

SizzlingKeys

Since the previous method only works with 10.7 Lion, that leaves 10.6 Snow Leopard users out in the cold. Luckily there’s another solution that works even better (so Lion users might even prefer to use this one!) An app called SizzlingKeys does iTunes commands and a whole lot more! But let’s focus on this specific feature for now. You can download SizzlingKeys on the developer’s website for free or on the Mac App Store for $1.99.

Once you’ve installed SizzlingKeys, click on the Floater tab. This is where you can configure just about every aspect of your iTunes “now playing” notifications. Options include how long the popup stays onscreen, when it displays, the text size, and whether it should also show the album cover art. SizzlingKeys also displays the album title, unlike the previous Lion-only method.

One thing you’ll want to do before you’re done setting up SizzlingKeys is go to the Preference tab and check the “Launch automatically at login” box. This way the iTunes notifications will always be enabled, even after you restart your Mac. Now you’ll always know what you’re currently listening to in iTunes!

Need to access or transfer files between Mac and PC? As simple as this task sounds, it’s not very straightforward for inexperienced users. Since Mac OS X and Windows use totally different file systems, the way a drive is formatted can determine what type of computer it will work with. In fact, there are four ways you can format an external or USB flash drive to achieve varying degrees of compatibility between Macs and PCs. Let’s take a look at them:

HFS+

Mac OS X’s native file system is HFS+ (also known as Mac OS Extended), and it’s the only one that works with Time Machine. But while HFS+ is the best way to format drives for use on Macs, Windows does not support it. If you’re only going to be using your external or USB flash drive with certain PCs – such as at home or the office – you might be interested in a program called MacDrive. When you install MacDrive on a Windows PC, it will be able to seamlessly read & write to HFS+ drives. This isn’t a good solution if you need your drive to work on any PC without installing software, though.

NTFS

The native Windows file system is NTFS, which is only partially compatible with Mac OS X. Macs can read files on NTFS drives, but it cannot write to them. So if you need to get files from a PC to your Mac, NTFS is a decent option. However, you won’t be able to move files in the other direction, from Mac to PC.

FAT32

The most universally supported way to format your drive is with the FAT32 file system. It works with all versions of Mac OS X and Windows. Case closed, right? Well, not so fast. Unfortunately, FAT32 is a very old file system and has some technical limitations. For example, you cannot save files that are larger than 4GB on a FAT32-formatted drive. This is a deal-breaker if you work with huge files. The other limitation is the total size of the partition. If you format your FAT32 drive in Windows, the drive partition cannot be larger than 32GB. If you format it from a Mac running 10.7 Lion, the drive partition can be up to 2TB. Much better, except for that pesky 4GB limit.

exFAT

The exFAT file system eliminates the two major deficiencies of FAT32: the largest partition and file sizes it supports are virtually unlimited by today’s standards. Awesome, it’s perfect! Almost… since exFAT is fairly new, it isn’t compatible with older Macs and PCs. Any Mac running 10.6.5 (Snow Leopard) or 10.7 (Lion) supports exFAT, while PCs running Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista SP1, and Windows 7 are compatible. If you know you’ll be using computers running updated versions of these operating systems, exFAT is the clear best choice.

Format a drive using Disk Utility on a Mac

1. Launch Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities).
2. Select your external hard drive or USB flash drive from the list on the left.
3. Click on the Erase tab. Select the format – Mac OS Extended (HFS+), MS-DOS (FAT32), or exFAT – then name the drive.
   
4. Click the Erase button and the drive will start formatting. Be aware that formatting a drive deletes all of the files on it, so back up anything important before completing this step.

Format a drive using Windows

1. Go to Computer (or My Computer in Windows XP).
2. Select your drive from the list and right-click on it. Choose Format from the contextual menu.
3. A window will pop up where you can choose the format – NTFS, FAT32, or exFAT. Make sure the allocation unit size is set to default and type in a volume label.
4. Click Start to format the drive.

It’s surprising how often we make copies of files and folders on our computers only to let them sit and go unnoticed for years at a time. Then when our hard drives start to get dangerously close to full capacity, we frantically go searching for data we can purge in order to free up some space. Gemini is a new application that aims to take care of this problem for us. It’s a duplicate file and folder finder that can scan your Mac’s hard drive, removable media, and network volumes – pretty much anything you can mount in Finder. Developed by MacPaw, the makers of CleanMyMac, Gemini is available exclusively on the Mac App Store ($9.99) for systems running 10.7 Lion.

How it works

Gemini is not a multi-purpose application – it serves one purpose and stays focused on that task. The result is an extremely simple and intuitive interface for finding duplicate files and folders on your Mac. To get started, all you have to do is drag & drop a folder from Finder right into the Gemini window. It will take a few moments to analyze the folder depending on its size, but this is generally a quick process.

When the scan is done and you click through to the results, a 3-column window is displayed. The left column shows a breakdown of files types (such as Pictures, Documents, Movies, etc.) along with a graph that illustrates how much space each one is using. You can filter the list of results in the middle column by selecting a file or folder type. Each duplicated file is displayed with an indicator of how many copies were found and their combined file size. When you click one, the right column shows a preview of the file, where each instance is located on your Mac, and the modified date.

To remove files or folders, just check the box next to each of them. This adds them to a queue, so nothing really happens until you click the red “Remove Selected” button at the top. Once you click, it confirms exactly what will be removed and warns you so you don’t accidentally delete all copies of a file. When you give the final command to get rid of the listed items, it “shreds” them and moves them to the Trash. You’ll have to empty the Trash to get rid of those files for good.

Impressions & Notes

Gemini works really well and helps focus your attention on what’s taking up the most unnecessary space on your Mac. It makes what used to be a laborious task much more efficient. Best of all, I saved over 5GB in my Documents folder alone!

A big selling point for Gemini is the “Auto Select All Files” function, which uses an intelligent algorithm to decide which files to remove. While this may sound like a huge time saver, leaving your data to an algorithm’s judgement can be risky. When it comes to deleting your data, only you know what is safe to remove and what isn’t. My personal recommendation is to use Gemini as a helpful duplicate discovery tool, not an automated cleaner.

Overall, Gemini is a handy utility with an easy to understand interface. It’s very good at what it does and will certainly benefit any Mac user who is looking to clean up the clutter and regain hard drive space. Gemini is available on the Mac App Store for $9.99.

Win a free copy of Gemini for Mac!

The developers of Gemini have been kind enough to offer free software licenses to TWO (2) lucky MacYourself readers! In fact, the giveaway is open to any Twitter user! To enter, simply follow @macpaw and @macyourself on Twitter, then tweet this message:

@macyourself @macpaw I want to win a free copy of #GeminiApp for Mac! http://bit.ly/xWWGGK

All entries must be made by February 24, 2012 at 11:59pm eastern U.S. time. At the end, we’ll gather all of your tweets and pick two winners at random! The lucky guys or girls will be announced on this page, so save this article’s URL and be sure to check back later. In the meantime, check out Gemini on the Mac App Store to learn more about how it works. Good luck!

UPDATE – February 25, 2012:
Congratulations to our winners, @tashanzac and @marcoutsider! Their tweets were randomly selected and they have each been given a free copy of Gemini for Mac! Thanks to everyone who entered and remember to consider purchasing a copy of Gemini on the Mac App Store.

If you’re a Mac user who frequently has a cluttered screen full of open windows, OS X’s app hiding feature is perfect for you. It’s simple: just press Cmd+H to hide all of the windows that belong to the app you’re currently using. They’re still running in the background, but are not visible on your desktop. To bring them back and instantly pick up where you left off, just click the app’s icon in the Dock.

Other than pressing Cmd+H, you can hide currently running apps in a few different ways too. For example, pressing Cmd+Option+H will “Hide Others,” or every window on your screen not belonging to the active app. This is really convenient for focusing on one specific task. You can also hold down the Option key when clicking away from an app to hide it.

Here’s the one downside to hiding open apps on your Mac: you can’t tell which apps are hidden by looking at the Dock. There’s no indication that they’re hidden, so they blend in with all of your visible apps. A buried feature of Mac OS X takes care of this issue, though, by making hidden app icons translucent in the Dock. This way you can instantly recognize which apps are visible and which ones aren’t. Here’s how:

Launch Terminal (Applications > Utilities) and enter the following command:

defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -bool YES

Press Enter on your keyboard, then type this command for the changes to take effect:

killall Dock

Press Enter again and you’re done! You’ve enabled a setting in the Dock’s preference file to make hidden app icons translucent. Hide an open app to try it out!

You can reverse this setting at any time by running this command:

defaults delete com.apple.Dock showhidden

Now just run “killall Dock” again and you’re back to normal.

Let’s say you’re a parent who took a home movie of your child during a musical performance. Or maybe you’ve got a clip of the funniest scene from your favorite movie. Whatever the case may be, you can convert pretty much any video file on your Mac to an audio file (as long as it’s not copy protected by DRM). While there are a bunch of methods you could try, we’re going to focus on two: Lion’s QuickTime Player and a free third-party program called MPEG Streamclip.

Extract audio using QuickTime Player

Assuming you’re running Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, the version of QuickTime Player that comes with your Mac can help you get the job done. The only thing you might have to do first is download and install Perian – a popular free plugin that makes QuickTime compatible with all kinds of video formats. If you don’t install Perian, QuickTime will only open certain files.

1. To get started extracting the audio from your video file, open the video in QuickTime Player.
2. If you want to keep all of the audio from the entire video, you can skip to step #3. But if your video is long and you only want the audio from a certain part, you can use QuickTime’s trim feature. Just go to the menu bar and select Edit > Trim. Then you can move the yellow handles to change where the video starts and ends.
3. When you’re ready to make your audio file, go to File > Export. When the Export window comes up, select “Audio Only” from the Format drop-down menu. Name your file and click Export.

Done! QuickTime will create an M4A audio file that you can use with iTunes to load onto you iPod, iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV.

Extract audio using MPEG Streamclip

MPEG Streamclip is a free program that was previously featured in our list of the 6 best free Mac video converters. The benefit of using this software instead of QuickTime is the level of control you have over file type, bit rate, etc. Once MPEG Streamclip is installed on your Mac, it’s easy to turn your video into audio only.

1. Launch MPEG Streamclip, then drag your video file from Finder right into the window. You can also go to File > Open Files if that’s easier.
2. Just like QuickTime Player, you have the option to trim your video first and use only the part you want. Move the playback indicator to the position where you’d like the video to start, then go to Edit > Select In. Now move the playback indicator to where the clip should end and go to Edit > Select Out. Choose Edit > Trim from the menu to finalize your changes.
3. Next, go to File > Export Audio. You’ll be able to choose from AIFF, MP4 AAC, and MP2 (not recommended) as the format, as well as other details like the sample and bit rates. Somewhere between 128-256 kbps will do the job most of the time. Click OK to name your new audio file and save it.

Now you’ve got an audio file to do whatever you want with. You can send it to a friend, use it in a audio/video project, import it to iTunes, etc. Enjoy!

Mac users have long complained that there’s no easy way to copy the location of a file or folder on their computer and paste it in a document, email, internet browser, etc. There are a bunch of third party utilities and convoluted workarounds to get this functionality, but let’s be honest – they’re all pretty terrible. Even MacYourself’s clever workaround from 2009 doesn’t work anymore in OS X 10.7 Lion.

So what do we do? We take matters into our own hands, of course! Let’s come up with our own solution – and let’s make it awesome.

Before we get started, we should establish some goals. Obviously we want to copy a file path or folder path from Finder and paste it somewhere else for reference. Let’s take that a few steps further and say we want to:

• Support the selection of multiple files and folders at a time
• Require no third party software or plugins to accomplish our goal
• Integrate with Finder so this feels like a real, native solution
• Set up a keyboard shortcut for quick & easy access
• Copy the path to OS X’s clipboard so it can be pasted in any application

Sounds like a plan! Here we go…

1. Launch Automator from your Mac’s Applications folder. If you’ve never used Automator before, that’s not a problem. This is going to be so simple anyone can do it.
2. Double-click the Service icon from Automator’s start menu.
   
3. Toward the top of the right column, you’ll see this line of text: “Service receives selected _____ in _____”. Choose “Files or Folders” from the first menu and “Finder” from the second.
4. Next, click on Utilities in the Actions library on the left side. Double-click “Copy to Clipboard” in the middle column. You’ll notice that this action has been added to our workflow on the right.
   
5. Go to File > Save in the menu bar and name your service Copy File Path. Our work with Automator is now done, so you can safely quit it once the service is saved.
6. Launch System Preferences and go to the Keyboard pane. Click on the Keyboard Shortcuts tab.
7. Select “Application Shortcuts” from the list on the left. Next, click on the + button at the bottom of the list.
8. A small window will come up with a few options that need to be set. Select “Finder” from the Application menu, type Copy File Path as the Menu Title, and create your own Keyboard Shortcut. If you don’t know what to put here, you can just press Shift+Command+C on your keyboard. Click Add and we’re done!
   

Now let’s test our fancy solution! Here’s how it works…

1. Select any file or folder (or a mixture of multiple files and folders at once) in Finder.
2. Press your keyboard shortcut – in our case, Shift+Command+C. This copies the path to OS X’s clipboard.
3. Open a text document, email message, or other place you’d like to use your location path. Press Command+V (or right-click and select Paste) to paste the file path(s). Hopefully you should see something like /Users/YourName/Documents/Work/Files/resume.doc

From now on these 3 easy steps are all you have to do to copy and paste file paths from Finder to your clipboard and, ultimately, another application. Pretty cool!

A few things to mention… If you’re not keen on keyboard shortcuts, the service you created is also accessible when you right-click on an item in Finder and select Services > Copy File Path from the contextual menu. The actual file we created for this service is located in: ~/Library/Services in case you ever want to delete it or copy it to put on another Mac. Finally, this tutorial was written specifically for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, so the steps involving Automator might be a little different if you’re running an older version.

How does this solution work for you? Does it give your Mac the functionality you were looking for?

Don’t panic, but there’s only two more weeks until Christmas! With the big day rapidly approaching, it’s time to check off all the names on your shopping list. Or, for the purposes of this article, at least all of those who own Apple products. Our iPhones and iPads play such a large role in our lives that getting a cool new accessory can be just as good as getting a whole new device! There are thousands of compatible products out there, but we’ve got a nice collection of 11 iPhone and iPad accessories that are sure to pique your interest and get you started.

Kensington Apple iPad 2 KeyFolio Pro Performance Case with Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard

Price: $61.62 (previously $99.99)
The iPad isn’t quite a laptop replacement, but with this product it comes real close. It acts as a stand, protective case, and wireless keyboard for the iPad 2. When in use on a table or desk, the laptop form factor makes iPad typing a whole lot easier.

Apple TV

Price: $94.99 (previously $99.00)
The ultimate iPhone and iPad accessory comes in the form of this little box that connects to a HDTV. Music, videos, photos, games, and more can be wirelessly beamed from an iOS device directly to the Apple TV. Not to mention, media can be streamed from iTunes on a Mac or PC and movies can be rented right on the TV.

Withings WiFi Body Scale

Price: $159.00
Who knew a scale could be so high-tech? This body scale is perfect for fitness and diet freaks. You step on to weigh yourself, then the scale wirelessly sends the data to your account, which can be accessed with iPhone and iPad apps. It’s a great way to track long term progress on weight, fat mass, BMI, etc.

Monster Cable iSplitter Mini Y-Adapter

Price: $7.04 (previously $9.95)
Have you ever watched a movie or listened to music on your iOS device, but wanted to share it with a friend sitting right next to you? This adapter solves that problem by splitting the headphone jack into two. Now both of you can listen together.

Griffin GC16040 Stylus

Price: $11.54 (previously $19.99)
Steve Jobs once said that companies who shipped phones and tablets with a stylus “blew it.” And he was right… our fingers are much better for input on a screen. Unless, of course, you’re using an iOS app for drawing or sketching. In this case, a stylus designed for touchscreens is a big help for your artistic creations.

Logitech Speaker Stand for iPad

Price: $62.40 (previously $69.99)
Let’s not forget that the iPad is an iPod too. This product pumps out terrific sound quality from your iPad and fills the room with music. It also serves as a great place to store and charge the iPad too.

Aglove Sport Touchscreen Gloves

Price: $23.99
Live in a cold climate? The gloves most of us wear make it impossible to use an iPhone or iPad on the go. Since the skin isn’t making contact with the touchscreen, it can’t register taps and swipes. This special type of gloves, however, are made with materials that are compatible with touchscreen devices so you don’t have to keep taking them on and off.

Griffin Powerjolt Dual Universal USB 12V Adapter

Price: $6.55 (previously $29.84)
Charging an iPhone in a car that doesn’t have USB connections is a pain. Rather than buy an expensive charger that can only be used in the car, this affordable adapter makes any car compatible with the iPhone’s regular USB cable.

RND Power Solutions 6-Foot Apple USB Cable

Price: $10.99 (previously $19.99)
The USB cable that comes with iOS devices is only about 3 feet long. If that’s not long enough for your syncing and charging needs, this cable is cheaper than Apple’s and twice the length.

4 in 1 Camera Lens Kit for Apple iPhone 4 and 4S

Price: $56.95
The iPhone’s camera is so good that most people don’t even need a real camera anymore. This kit aims to take iPhone photography to the next level by offering different lenses that can be attached to the back of the phone – wide angle, fish eye, and telescope. It comes with a mini tripod and case, as well.

Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit

Price: $29.39
The iPad’s beautiful 10″ screen is perfect for looking at photos. Syncing with a Mac or PC is inconvenient, though. The best way to get photos on an iPad is with Apple’s Camera Connection Kit, which supports USB connections and SD cards.

Prices accurate as of 12/11/11 and are subject to change. Please note that some of the products listed above have not been tested by MacYourself. They are presented here for informational purposes and not necessarily as endorsements.

Despite its 35 year history, Apple sold more computers in 2011 than ever before. With millions of new Mac users in the world, related accessories will be popular items this holiday season. Whether your budget is small or large, there’s a lot to choose from. Can’t decide what to get the Mac user in your life? Let’s make your Christmas shopping experience a bit easier by starting with these 11 Mac hardware accessories!

Silverhill 20 Piece Tool Kit for Apple Products

Price: $11.99
Alright, so it’s not the most glamorous gift you can give. But if your Mac lover is also a tinkerer or do-it-yourself type of person, this is right on. Apple’s products tend to have unique screws and are often difficult to take apart, but this is a tool kit specifically made for disassembling Apple products.

Mobee Wireless Charger for Magic Mouse

Price: $49.99
There’s nothing worse than having a wireless mouse’s batteries die only to discover you don’t have any new ones handy. This product is an inductive charger specifically designed for Apple’s Magic Mouse. There’s nothing to remove or connect – when the mouse isn’t in use, just place it on top of the charger. It will charge the batteries wirelessly.

Mobee Magic Bar Inductive Charger for Apple Keyboard and Magic Trackpad

Price: $59.99
Why stop at just the Magic Mouse? There is also a matching inductive charger available for Apple’s wireless keyboard and the Magic Trackpad. It sure beats throwing away regular AA batteries or regularly having to open the device to replace rechargeables.

Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1TB External Hard Drive

Price: $129.00 (previously $169.99)
Many Mac users eventually run out of storage space. And those who don’t still need a good backup to protect their irreplaceable documents, photos, videos, etc. An external hard drive might be the most thoughtful Christmas gift because it can offer peace of mind and prevent headaches down the road.

Belkin 10 Foot USB Cable

Price: $5.02 (previously $34.99)
External hard drives, flash drives, printers, and many other peripherals connect via USB. With that said, you can never have too many USB cables around. You never know when you might need an extra one.

Kensington SmartSockets 6-Outlet Circular Surge Protector

Price: $37.99 (previously $60.00)
Whether it’s an office or living room, the place where a Mac and its related peripherals reside should be protected from power surges that can instantly fry them. There are a ton of options out there, but the circular shape of this product makes it much more practical for the different types of plugs manufacturers use.

Apple Thunderbolt Cable

Price: $49.00
Most new Macs purchased in 2011 feature a Thunderbolt port that is ridiculously faster than USB 3.0 and FireWire 800. Thunderbolt is still new, but it’s clearly the future and is even in use right now. There are external hard drives that take advantage of its fast speeds and Thunderbolt is used to connect Macs to Apple’s 27″ Cinema Display. It’s also the best way to transfer files from one Mac to another.

Mobee Magic Numpad for Apple Magic Trackpad

Price: $29.90
Apple’s wireless keyboards do not have the number pad found on the right side of full-size keyboards. If a Mac user needs those keys for quick number crunching, this product turns a Magic Trackpad into a number pad. It even includes different keyboard layouts and software to recognize touch input.

Cisco-Linksys USB Ethernet Adapter

Price: $25.99 (previously $29.99)
MacBook Air owners enjoy the luxury of a super-slim form factor partially because Apple removed some of the ports commonly found on other computers. For example, there is no Ethernet port. If a MacBook Air user wants to connect to a wired network, they’ll need a USB Ethernet adapter such as this.

JLab USB Laptop Speakers

Price: $29.95 (previously $69.95)
Admittedly, the built-in speakers on Apple’s MacBooks are pretty weak. They’re low-power, but not particularly loud or rich in audio quality. Portable speakers like this are a great way to beef up the sound without creating a hassle when traveling.

VT 12-Inch Touch Screen Graphic Pen Tablet

Price: $69.43 (previously $129.00)
Mac users are a creative bunch. Many of us are designers, artists, or hobbyists who like to draw. Graphic pen tablets are typically quite expensive, but this is geared towards non-professionals looking for an affordable entry level product. Perfect for those who want to draw on their Macs for fun!

Prices accurate as of 12/5/11 and are subject to change. Please note that some of the products listed above have not been tested by MacYourself. They are presented here for informational purposes and not necessarily as endorsements.

Following our collection of 9 obscure iOS 5 tips & tricks, let’s take it a step further and get into what’s new for iPad users in particular. All of these iPad-only features improve how common tasks can be completed, so it’s not just power users who can benefit. Even the most casual iPad user will be able to take advantage of these improvements.

Tabbed browsing

Web browsing on iOS devices is better than on any other mobile platform, but switching between open pages wasn’t so convenient before iOS 5. Now Safari on iPad is more like Safari on Mac and Windows, with full support for tabbed browsing.

Back & forward history buttons

When you’re in the midst of a vicious web browsing session in Safari, you can rapidly go through a ton of different pages. By tapping and holding either the Back or Forward button, a pop-up containing a convenient list of your recent history will appear.

Year view in Calendar app

iOS 5 introduces a new way to look at your calendar on the iPad – year view. This turns your calendar into a heat map of your year’s events. The more events you have scheduled on a day, the darker it appears.

Split keyboard

Are you used to typing with your thumbs on your iPhone or iPod touch? The iPad’s larger size makes it hard to do the same thing, but with iOS 5 you can split your iPad’s keyboard in two. Just tap and hold anywhere on the keyboard with two fingers, then drag each finger in the opposite direction towards the sides of the screen. The keys will shrink and each half of the keyboard will be pinned to one side. Much easier on those thumbs!

Move keyboard up and down

The iPad’s keyboard got another upgrade, too. By holding down the Hide Keyboard button in the lower-right corner of the screen, you can choose to Undock it. Now when you hold the same button and move your finger up and down the screen, the keyboard moves with it. Top, middle, bottom – it can move anywhere you put it, even in split keyboard mode.

Multitasking gestures

The iPad now supports a number of convenient multi-touch gestures thanks to iOS 5. For example, you can use 4 or 5 fingers to swipe up on the screen and reveal the multitasking bar. This is in comparison to pressing the Home button twice, of course. You can also swipe left and right with 4 or 5 fingers to switch directly between open apps. It’s kind of like hitting Cmd+Tab on a Mac to cycle through running programs. Finally, iPad users can use 4 or 5 fingers to pinch inwards on the screen and go back to the home screen.

Having trouble getting your multi-touch gestures working? Make sure they’re enabled by going to Settings > General > Multitasking Gestures.

It seems like every time Apple releases a new product, there are little gems and nuggets of functionality that don’t become widely known until weeks or even months later. That’s because the heavily marketed features like Notification Center, Siri, and iMessage understandably get all of the attention at first. Having had some quality time with iOS 5 under our belts, let’s look at 9 lesser-known tips and tricks power users might enjoy.

1. Swipe to view Camera Roll

When you’re in the Camera app before or after you’ve taken a photo, you don’t have to tap the little thumbnail in the lower corner of the screen to see your pictures. Just swipe anywhere on the screen from left to right and your Camera Roll will instantly slide into view.

2. Hourly forecast in Weather app

The Weather app in iOS has always been very basic, which often meant downloading a 3rd party app was necessary to get more detailed information. Apple has given the Weather app a nice upgrade in iOS 5 by including hourly forecasts. Just tap on a day of the week and the hourly breakdown will appear.

3. Remove specific website data

In the past, we’ve had to delete the entire cache and all of Safari’s cookies in order to remove one site’s data from our device. Not anymore! By going to Settings > Safari > Advanced > Website Data you can pick and choose which website’s data should be deleted from your iOS 5 device.

4. Quote level control in Mail

Have you ever had to copy something from a previous message in an email chain and then paste it in the message you’re composing? Those “quoted” indentations came along with it and were a hassle to remove. Now you can select the text after you’ve pasted it, tap the arrow pointing to the right, and select the Quote Level option. From there you can decrease or increase the indentation level.

5. Draggable recipients in Mail

It was incredibly frustrating to reply to certain emails in previous versions of iOS because you couldn’t move a recipient between the To, CC, and BCC fields. Deleting and retyping the email address was the only way around it. Now, in iOS 5, you can simply tap, hold, and drag recipients between these fields.

6. Custom keyboard shortcuts

If you type certain phrases or lines of text often, iOS 5 can automate the process with custom keyboard shortcuts. Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Add New Shortcut. For example, you could enter “I’ll be right there!” as the phrase and “brt” as the shortcut. Anytime you type “brt” in an email, message, note, etc. your phrase will appear.

7. Swipe to navigate in Calendar

When you’re in Day view in the Calendar app, you don’t have to tap those tiny arrow buttons to switch between days. Just swipe left or right anywhere on the screen to navigate.

8. Draggable events in Calendar

In Day view, you can edit an existing event without ever going into Edit mode. Tap on an event and hold it until a drop shadow appears underneath. Now try dragging it up and down to change the time of day it occurs, or left and right to switch which day it appears under. You can even drag the dot handles up and down to change the duration of the event.

9. Disable iMessage read receipts

When someone sends you an iMessage and you read it, the other person is notified. If you’re someone who doesn’t like to reveal that kind of information for whatever reason, you don’t have to. By going to Settings > iMessage, you can switch “Send Read Receipts” off. Now the sender won’t know whether you saw their message or not. Sneaky!

What are your favorite “obscure” iOS 5 tips & tricks?

Analog, developed by Realmac Software, is now available on the Mac App Store for $7.99. With services like Instagram taking off, there’s a lot of interest in retro photography right now. And for good reason! Applying stylized filters infuses photos with personality or, as the developers of Analog would say – soul. There’s no doubt that’s exactly what this app can do with seemingly mundane images.

Optimized for Lion’s full screen and restore features, Analog presents a very Mac-like experience. It’s user interface is incredibly simple with a preview area on the left and a filter gallery on the right. There’s also a switch to toggle between filters and border styles. Getting started is as easy as dragging a photo to the Analog window and clicking on a filter to see the results.

Analog’s ease-of-use really empowers you to experiment with different image styles until you find just the right one. There are 20 filters and 14 borders to choose from, which is enough of a variety to get the desired effect most of the time. You can also crop and rotate photos by hovering over the image and clicking the appropriate icon. When you’re all done, Analog has sharing capabilities built in. You can save, email, or post your creations to social networks like Facebook, Flickr, and Picasa.

While Analog does make modifying your photos extremely intuitive, there are some tradeoffs. For example, applying filters with one click means you can’t adjust or customize the effects. They are what they are, so some work for certain photos while others do not. In addition, Analog seems to require serious horsepower for such a seemingly simple app. Messing around with filters on a few large images brought my MacBook Pro to a crawl. The developer is aware of these issues, though, and plans to include a fix (and new features) in an upcoming free update.

In summary, if you’re looking for a quick and affordable way to stylize photos on your Mac, Analog is definitely worth checking out. It’s available now exclusively on the Mac App Store for $7.99.

Win a free copy of Analog for Mac!

The developers of Analog ($7.99 on the Mac App Store) have been kind enough to offer a free software license to one lucky MacYourself reader! We’re going to try something new and take the giveaway to Twitter this time. To enter, simply mention @analogapp and @macyourself in the same tweet with a link back to this article (http://bit.ly/o8Gu3q).

All entries must be made by October 26, 2011 at 11:59pm eastern U.S. time. At the end, we’ll gather all of your tweets and pick a winner at random! The lucky guy or girl will be announced on this page, so save this article’s URL and be sure to check back later. In the meantime, check out Analog on the Mac App Store to learn more about its features. Good luck!

UPDATE – October 27, 2011:
Congratulations to our winner, @xJaredCummingsx! His tweet was randomly selected and he has been given a free copy of Analog for Mac! Thanks to everyone who entered and remember to consider purchasing a copy of Analog on the Mac App Store.

Transferring files from Mac to Mac is so easy in Mac OS X Lion that there’s barely anything to it. Just go to the AirDrop menu in the Finder sidebar on both Macs and they will automatically find each other. Next, drag one or more files to the icon of the computer you’re sending them to. The person on the other end will approve the transfer and that’s it!

While the beauty of AirDrop is its simplicity, that doesn’t mean there aren’t caveats. For example, the awesome technology that lets AirDrop work without both Macs being connected to the same wireless network (or any network at all, for that matter) also makes the feature exclusive to recent Macs. Apple has a rundown of Mac models which support AirDrop on their website and the list is limited to those that have a special kind of wireless chip inside them. AirDrop relies on Wi-Fi’s PAN (Personal Area Network) interface, which is capable of establishing peer-to-peer connections. But what if your Mac doesn’t support PAN, even though you’re running Lion? A couple lines of code will keep you from feeling left out.

1. Launch Terminal (located in Applications > Utilities) and paste the following command:
   

   defaults write com.apple.NetworkBrowser BrowseAllInterfaces 1

2. Press Enter to run the command.
3. Next, paste this line in Terminal to restart Finder:
   

   killall Finder

4. Press Enter again and you’re ready to go!

Let’s say you have two Macs running Lion – one that supports AirDrop out of the box and another that is unsupported. If you’re going to be using this technique to share files between them, it’s a good idea to follow steps 1-4 on both computers. You can always reverse this setting by going through the process again, except replacing the 1 at the end of the first command with a 0.

What exactly have we just done? In essence, we’ve told AirDrop to work over any kind of network, not just a PAN. The only difference is that now both computers need to be connected to the same local network in order see each other and transfer files. So you can have one Mac connected to your network over Ethernet and another connected via Wi-Fi. Perhaps both have Ethernet, or maybe both have Wi-Fi. Whatever the combination, it’ll work just the same.

One thing to keep in mind is that Apple likely chose to only allow AirDrop to work over PAN connections because they are heavily encrypted. Whatever files you transfer using AirDrop with its default settings are secured and safe from snoopers. With the technique in this tutorial, you’re getting more flexibility at the cost of security. Files are only as safe as the network you’re connected to. If it’s your home network, it’s probably no big deal. If you’re using the public Wi-Fi at Starbucks or a college campus, make sure you’re not sharing anything important.

To those who know a bit about photography, depth of field plays a big role in what separates good pictures from great pictures. But for those who aren’t pros with top notch equipment, it’s difficult to achieve that level of quality with a point and shoot or smartphone camera. Focus, now on the Mac App Store for $4.99, helps non-pros get the results they’re looking for with intuitive blurring effects.

Since Mac users are generally a creative bunch, Focus will likely appeal to a lot of folks. It can breathe new life into photos, especially if they are already good to start with and just need that little something extra to reach the next level. And since Focus does just one thing and does it well, all of the complexity of other photo editing applications is nowhere to be found.

To get started with Focus, just launch the app and drag a photo to the window. Next, select a tool preset – Portrait, Nature, Architecture, Macro, Tilt & Shift – and customize the area of focus along with the level of blur. It’s really simple to do, especially with a live preview of exactly what the finished product will look like. You can also crop, zoom, and make other adjustments to experiment with the photo’s composition. Focus takes full advantage of Lion features like Multi-Touch gestures, versions, full screen, and resume so it feels like a Mac application in the same family as iPhoto, except with a much more streamlined interface.

In my experience, Focus produced really nice results, especially given its price and overall simplicity. There are other tools that give users a greater level of control, but they’re also more complex and require more fine tuning to get the desired effect. The presets that come with Focus provide a great starting point, so customizing adjustments should only take a few moments. The only complaint I have about Focus is its lack of file format support when exporting. Currently the only export option is JPG, so adding PNG and TIFF would be a great feature enhancement. With that said, Focus is only on version 1.0.1 and the developer plans to release updates in the future. Considering how solid the app is already, I’m looking forward to seeing what they add next.

Win a free copy of Focus for Mac!

The developers of Focus (regularly $4.99 on the Mac App Store) have been nice enough to offer a free software license to one lucky MacYourself reader! To enter, please leave a comment below, along with a valid email address (this is how we will contact you). In order to avoid spam filter issues, please type a coherent sentence saying you’d like a chance to win. Make sure you have access to the Mac App Store since this is the only way to get Focus. Multiple entries will be deleted, so please only add one comment per person. And finally, don’t worry if your comment doesn’t appear on the site immediately — it might be awaiting moderation and will show up shortly.

The winner will be chosen at random based on the comment number they happen to be. The lucky guy or girl will be announced on this page, so save this article’s URL and be sure to check back later. All entries must be made by September 23, 2011 at 11:59pm eastern U.S. time. In the meantime, check out Focus on the Mac App Store to learn more about what it can do. Good luck!

UPDATE – September 25, 2011:
Congratulations to our winner, Gail! Her comment number was chosen from a random number generator and she has been given a free copy of Focus for Mac! Thanks to everyone who entered and remember to consider purchasing a copy of Focus on the Mac App Store yourself.

Most Mac users have no need to encrypt their Time Machine backups, but those who are extra careful or have sensitive information on their computers will appreciate the peace of mind. After all, if someone got their hands on your external hard drive and plugged it into their Mac, they could easily grab all the files from your Time Machine backup. It’s literally that easy – no hacks or workarounds necessary. That’s why encryption might be worth taking a look at, if you’re concerned about security.

Both new and existing Time Machine backups can be set up with encryption. There are a couple important things to keep in mind before password protecting your backup, though. First, Time Machine uses FileVault 2 to encrypt the disk, so it will only be readable on Macs using Lion. Older Macs won’t be able to access the data. Second, encryption is only available for directly connected backup drives. That’s USB and FireWire only, not Time Capsule or other wireless drives.

To password protect your backup, follow these easy steps:

1. Launch System Preferences, then click on the Time Machine icon.
2. Go to Select Disk and select the disk you’re using for your Time Machine backup.
3. Check the box next to “Encrypt backup disk” and click the Use Backup Disk button.
4. Type in a password of your choice. Make sure it’s difficult for others to crack, but easy for you to remember. If you need to restore from your backup in the future and forget this password, you’re going to be out of luck.

Time Machine will now start encrypting the disk, which will likely take quite a bit of time on the first run. It might be a few hours or even up to a full day, depending on how much data is on the disk. Make sure you can leave your Mac connected to the drive for an extended period of time – you cannot interrupt the process once it starts.

MacYourself previously published a popular article explaining how to reset the password on Macs running 10.4, 10.5 and 10.6. Unfortunately, those methods no longer work in 10.7 Lion or 10.8 Mountain Lion. That doesn’t mean you’re out of luck – there are new ways to reset a password in Lion.

As mentioned in our original article, it’s important to remember that anyone with physical access to your computer (whether it is a Mac, Windows or Linux) can eventually find a way in. There’s no such thing as complete security if someone who knows what they’re doing is sitting in front of your computer. If you’re truly concerned about the security of your files, you should look into using FileVault to encrypt them.

Reset password using Lion Recovery

If you bought a brand new Mac with Lion pre-installed, the hard drive includes with a recovery partition that gives you access to a bunch of different tools. Here’s how to take advantage of this utility to reset your Mac’s password:

1. Shut down your Mac and turn it back on while holding down the Command and R keys at the same time until you see the Lion Recovery screen.
2. From the menu bar at the top, select Utilities > Terminal.
3. In the Terminal window type resetpassword and press Enter.
4. Use the Reset Password utility to select your hard drive, choose your user account, and enter a new password.

Reset Lion password with Single User mode

Anyone running Mac OS X Lion can take advantage of this method:

1. Shut down your Mac and turn it back on while holding down the Command and S keys at the same time until your see a black screen with white text. This is known as Single User mode.
2. You can skip this step, but it’s recommended that you don’t because it will check the consistency of your hard drive. At the prompt, type fsck -fy and press Enter.
3. Once the disk check is complete and the prompt returns, type mount -uw / and press Enter.
4. Type launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.opendirectoryd.plist and press Enter.
5. Type ls /Users and press Enter. All of the usernames on the computer will be listed, which is helpful if you don’t know or remember what these are.
6. Type dscl . passwd /Users/username password while replacing username with one of the users displayed in the previous step and replacing password with the new password of your choice. Press Enter. You will likely get an error message about a file or directory not being found – it’s safe to ignore this.
7. Type reboot and press Enter.