mac

Yesterday, along with the genuine release of Game Dev Tycoon (Windows demo; Mac demo; Lite version for Windows 8), developers Greenheart Games treated some online gamers to an extra "gift" in the form of a cracked version of the game, which they then seeded via BitTorrent protocol.

Soon after seeding the cracked version of the game, thousands of users downloaded it. As those players progressed through the game--which takes players from producing games in a garage to becoming global leaders in the industry--establishing and growing their companies, they were blocked from proceeding further with the following, not-so-subtle hint--delivered … Read more

The OS X Finder offers a number of different views for organizing folder contents; however, in some of these views you may notice periodically that contents will shift around. This usually is not an issue, but sometimes it may result in the window view switching to a different position, resulting in you losing your place. This can be especially frustrating when you are managing a long list of items in a folder and the view keeps returning to a specific locaiton in the list.

This generally happens because you have the Finder view listed by date modified or a similar … Read more

It is important to make sure your computer is maintained well and running at an optimal temperature. Temperature Monitor Widget for Mac helps you avoid letting your computer overheat by reading out all accessible temperature sensors. It is a rather easy-to-use and non-intrusive widget that runs in the background.

Temperature Monitor Widget for Mac comes in a 200KB installer and adds the widget to the dashboard. It will default to displaying the temperature of your CPU, but you have the option to change which components it monitors. The app is very non-intrusive and you'll most likely forget it's … Read more

Whether you want to use an interesting video as your screensaver, or would like to use your screensaver to display marketing and promotional material, this app provides an interesting solution. SaveHollywood for Mac enables you to use your own videos, including flash, QuickTime and other formats, as a screensaver. It can also be used as a solution to watch QuickTime videos in fullscreen. This non-intrusive app works great and offers some customization options.

The installation process for SaveHollywood for Mac literally takes seconds. Once it's installed, you can access the app via your Desktop and Screensavers in the Mac … Read more

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which I answer Mac-related questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week, readers wrote in asking about the inability to format a drive due to "partition map" errors, how to determine what is using up space rapidly on the hard drive, how to restore a missing Safari program, and the options for tackling an iMac that continually shuts off in the middle of use. I welcome contributions from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, please post them in the comments!

Question: Unable to format a … Read more

You can share files between your Android device and a Mac by using a USB cable and running Android File Transfer on your Mac. If both devices are connected to the same Wi-Fi network, however, there's an easier way: Droid NAS. Droid NAS is an Android app that makes your device appear in Finder as a Bonjour computer. There's no need to open a Web browser or run a separate program on your Mac.

Launch Droid NAS on your Android device, then select which profile you want to use. You can choose among the three profiles that are … Read more

Unlike classic keyboards where characters were small decals stuck on generic keys, many modern keyboards, such as those in Apple's laptops, have keys built for the specific characters. The keys are made of translucent plastic with a black coating so the character can be illuminated with a backlight.

This approach to keys offers great advantage in low-light situations, but it also can be a bit of a burden if the key begins to wear out. While the keys ought to last, after extensive use you may look down to see some of the characters fading away.

When key wear … Read more

It's official. Intel's fourth-generation core "Haswell" processor will arrive on June 3. Expect a crush of desktops, laptops, convertibles, detachables, and tablets to ensue.

"In approximately 3,337,200,000,000,000 nanoseconds, Intel will reveal all there is to know about the highly anticipated 4th generation Intel Core processor family," Intel said in a statement Friday.

That's June 3 in the U.S. and June 4 in Taiwan, where it will be rolled out at Computex.

Haswell is mostly about better battery life and, to a lesser extent, about improved graphics performance. … Read more

Fighting spam is a constant cat-and-mouse game and one every e-mail provider faces. I receive my fair share of spam e-mail on my iCloud e-mail account, and for the longest time have just deleted them without opening, figuring it would eventually stop.

Then last week while on Twitter, I saw the following Tweet:

Pro tip:1. Select spam message2. Message => Forward As Attachment3. Send to spam@me.com4. Do a dance

I had no idea this method even existed. Unfortunately, forwarding an e-mail as an attachment isn't possible on an iOS device. … Read more