Tutorials

Ted Landau January 2007

The Accounts System Preferences pane may not be the most glamorous destination in Mac OS X, but it?s definitely worth a stopover in Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5). Check it out and you?ll find a collection of valuable new features. To take advantage of these features, you also want to familiarize yourself with some new options in the File Sharing section of the Sharing System Preferences pane. What all these features are and how to use them is the subject of this tutorial.

Part A: Accounts System Preferences Pane

Guest Invitations. After arriving … Read more

So you bought a guitar (or bass, or drum kit). Now what? Back in my day, there were several popular ways to learn how to play. You could take lessons, which was probably the quickest way to get to basic competence, but seemed short on creativity and punk-rock DIY spirit. You could play along to CDs by your favorite bands, which was slow, error-prone, and frustrating, but balanced by occasional moments of "a ha" enlightenment. (This is how I did it, playing along to Led Zeppelin, which were the only CDs I had in my possession after a … Read more

If you are into troubleshooting (and given that you are here at MacFixIt, it's likely that you are), you'll find a wealth of welcome goodies in Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard). If I were to make a list of Noteworthy New Troubleshooting-Related Features in Leopard, the first item would be the redesigned and pumped-up Sharing System Preferences pane and its related features. And of all the new sharing?related features, the one perched at the absolute pinnacle would be screen sharing.… Read more

In an earlier tutorial, we explained how to clone the Tiger install DVD to a partition on an external FireWire disk. This is a good idea because the DVD is optical media, and optical media can have problems. A DVD is slow to boot up, and if there is any kind of glitch with the drive or the medium, you may not be able to complete the installation. A FireWire drive, on the other hand, is fast and reliable, so if you need to reinstall, or install to a new partition, you just boot up from the partition containing the … Read more

Herewith, a short philosophical and practical guide to upgrading to Leopard.

Your ground of being should be caution and forbearance. Consider the situation both for Apple and for developers:

Apple, having allowed this shipment to slip six months already, has had to get Leopard out the door before the end of October by hook or by crook. You may reasonably conclude that this cake is probably not entirely baked. As with Tiger, an early software update (10.5.1) will likely be needed to correct a multitude of issues. Until then, consider yourself a beta tester.

Most of the changes … Read more

Earlier, we published a tutorial explaining how to clone the Tiger installer DVD to an external FireWire drive. In that tutorial, we suggested that while you're doing this you should also have a second partition on the external drive on which you can actually install the system. Well, now the truth can be told; in that tutorial, we were just preparing you for a valuable Leopard installation technique.

You see, Leopard is the first Mac OS X system that comes on a Universal Binary DVD. The very same DVD can be used to install Leopard either on a PowerPC … Read more

This, Apple officially releases Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) -- a major update that will be installed by thousands of early adopters in its first few hours of availability.

The following guidelines are aimed at reducing common issues that occur during as a result of the upgrade process, including pre-update preparation, proper installation, and post-update maintenance.

Backing up your data: A prerequisite Performing a backup prior to embarking on a major Mac OS X upgrade is essential.

Apple offers some excellent tips for standard backups that can be accomplished using the Terminal, or the .Mac Backup application in Knowledge … Read more

USB device issues can crop up at anytime, but are most common after a significant system update. Here's a quick rundown of workarounds, in increasing order of complication and potential for side-effects (i.e., try the first-listed ones first) for eliminating problems with lack of device recognition, conflicts between devices and more.

Unplug, then re-plug It might seem almost too rudimentary, but this is an oft-overlooked fix that's successful in a surprising number of cases: Unplug your USB device along with any external power it may use, wait a few seconds, then plug it back in. As an … Read more

It breaks my heart to see an iPhone that's missing album cover artwork. There you are with the most beautiful iPod ever created, but your music collection looks like an endless series of generic boxes. Prove yourself worthy of owning such an advanced piece of technology by using my step-by-step guide for adding cover art to your iPhone's music collection. It's the least you can do. Respect your iPhone, people.

You can even use the guide to find out how to replace your album art with custom photos. You haven't truly lived until you've seen … Read more