Author: Cory Bohon

Whenever you plug an iPhone or iPad into a Mac and check its data storage in iTunes, a chunk of space is always mysteriously taken up by “Other.” If you’ve ever wondered exactly what that data is and how to get rid of it, you’ve come to the right place!

The “Other” space is reserved for application data and settings.

On an iOS device, the “Other” space visible in iTunes is used to store things like documents, settings, caches, and a few other important items. If you sync lots of documents to apps such as GoodReader that read external files, your storage use can skyrocket. Thankfully, ever since iOS 5 it’s been easy to see exactly which applications are taking up the most space.

In iOS 7, simply head to Settings > General > Usage. After a few moments a list of your apps will appear, showing how much space each one is eating up. You can tap an app to get detailed information such as, say, how data is split between various podcast subscriptions in Apple’s Podcasts app. You can remove a storage-hogging application and all of its data directly from this screen, or manually remove the data by opening the app.

Applications that store large files will use more of the Other storage space.

That’s all there is to it! By periodically checking the Usage screen, you can keep your device from becoming bloated with extraneous data, and create extra room for more important things like duckface selfies and cat videos.

Every Monday we show you how to do something quick and cool using built-in OS X utilities such as Terminal, Apple’s command line application. These easy hacks can make life better and simpler, and don’t require any knowledge of coding — all you need is a keyboard to type ’em out!

How many times have you accidentally hit Caps Lock or another modifier key while typing and wish that the key in question simply didn’t exist? Well, you can have you dream come true with a little-known feature of OS X that lets you remap the modifier keys on your keyboard to make then function differently, or perhaps not function at all, if you wish. Continue reading and we’ll show you how you can change this setting to your heart’s desire.

To begin customizing the modifier keys in OS X, you’ll want to open System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard.

Once in the Keyboard tab of the Keyboard System Preference pane, select the “Modifier Keys…” button in the lower right-hand corner of the window.

After doing this, a dialog box appears that allows you to select the action that happens when a modifier key is pressed on your keyboard. Besides being an obviously good April Fool’s joke, this section can be used to remap the modifier keys on your keyboards.

The modifier keys are “Caps Lock,” “Control,” “Option,” and “Command.” You can remap any of these keys to any other modifier key, which could prove beneficial when typing. The best part is that you can also remap a key to “No Action,” causing nothing to occur when the modifier key is pressed.

Note that in this preference pane, the selection of the modifier keys only affects the keyboard that is selected (if multiple keyboards are currently connected). You can also always restore the keyboard keys to defaults by going back into this Modifier Keys panel and selecting the “Restore Defaults” button. Select “OK” to save the changes.

Cory Bohon is a freelance technology writer, indie Mac and iOS developer, and amateur photographer. Follow this article’s author on Twitter.

Got an Apple, Mac, or iOS tech question? We have the answer. In this week’s installment of Ask, we’ll help you get your Mac’s display (or at least the text) looking sharper than ever.

Question: I was so happy to read the “Get a Crisp Non-Retina Display” article in your April 2014 issue. However, after using the technique listed there for switching to HiDPI mode, text didn’t look as sharp as I expected; is there anything else I can do?

Answer: Enabling the Hi-Res item in the Display Preferences is done by going to the Terminal (located in /Applications/Utilities) and typing:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist 
DisplayResolutionEnabled -bool true

However, this feature that may or may not be fully compatible with your external display. If the display is not a hi-res display, then you may encounter an issue where fonts look jagged. That being said, you can enable font smoothing, which may either help or worsen the situation, but is worth a try if you wish to keep the hi-res feature enabled on your external display. 

To enable global font smoothing on all displays that the MacBook is connected to (including its own internal display), you’ll want to open the Terminal application and perform the following commands (on one line), followed by the enter key after entering each command: 

defaults -currentHost read -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing 

If you read the setting for Apple Font Smoothing and get an error, this simply means that the variable was not set before.

Depending on if it’s enabled or not, you’ll get a message such as “The domain/default pair of (kCFPreferencesAnyApplication, AppleFontSmoothing) does not exist.” This is actually OK; it tells us that the font-smoothing feature of OS X is not enabled, and could be to blame for your fuzzy fonts. To enable font smoothing, enter the following command, then the enter key: 

defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing -int 2 

If, after entering this command, you don’t see any difference, or the font smoothing looks worse, the you may want to adjust it by re-entering the above command replacing the 2 with a 1. You can completely remove this setting by typing the following command into the Terminal: 

defaults -currentHost delete -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing 

This should solve any troubles with fuzzy fonts. Note that to see any changes to the font smoothing, you may need to log out of and then back into your OS X account between entering the commands.

After entering the command to set Apple Font Smoothing, you should see a change; if not, then log out and then back into your OS X account.

Ask is written by Cory Bohon, a freelance technology writer, indie Mac and iOS developer, and amateur photographer.

Got a tech question? Email ask@maclife.com.

Got an Apple, Mac, or iOS tech question? We have the answer. In this week’s installment of Ask, we’ll teach you how to hang on to your contacts even if you’re deleting the old email accounts they’re associated with.

Question: I have maintained multiple email accounts, several for work, and have recently retired. I would like to delete the work email account from my iPhone and iPad; however, I need to retain many of the contacts. Will the contacts go away when I delete the email accounts? Is there a way to save all of the contacts? 

Answer: The easiest way to download a copy of your iOS contacts to your Mac is to use an application called iExplorer (available from http://bit.ly/ml_iexplorer). Using this application, you can easily extract all of the contacts stored on your device (regardless of their origin). This is especially helpful since iTunes 11 no longer syncs contacts with iOS devices. 

iExplorer will allow you to easily view and export your contacts from your iOS device without having to sync through other means.

After downloading and installing iExplorer, launch it, then select your iOS device. Once there, select Data > Contacts. In this section, you’ll be able to view all of your contacts. Click the “Export All” button that appears in the Contact details view, and the contacts can be exported to the location of your choosing on your computer. Once your contacts have been exported, you can easily import them into iCloud for syncing back to your iOS device. You can then finally delete your old email accounts. 

iExplorer is paid software, but it has a free trial that will allow you to view your contacts, though you won’t be able to export them to your computer.

When exporting through iExplorer, by default, all of your contacts will go directly into the Contacts app on your Mac.

Ask is written by Cory Bohon, a freelance technology writer, indie Mac and iOS developer, and amateur photographer.

Got a tech question? Email ask@maclife.com.

Every Monday we show you how to do something quick and cool using built-in OS X utilities such as Terminal, Apple’s command line application. These easy hacks can make life better and simpler, and don’t require any knowledge of coding — all you need is a keyboard to type ’em out!

In OS X Lion, Apple incorporated the pop-up accent typing tool that was first introduced in iOS, which allows you to easily access accented characters by holding down the corresponding letter key. But if you don’t regularly use accented characters, it might be best to disable this function with a little Terminal hackage.

To disable the pop-up accent window when typing in OS X, open up the Terminal application (located in /Applications/Utilities), then type in the following command followed by the enter key:

defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false

After typing in this command, log out of your OS X account, then log back in for the changes to take effect. After doing this, you’ll notice that the pop-up accent window no longer appears when you press and hold down certain keys.

If you ever want to have this menu appear again, type in this command:

defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool true

Then, once again, log out of your OS X account, and then back in for the changes to take effect. After doing this, the accent window will appear again while typing.

Cory Bohon is a freelance technology writer, indie Mac and iOS developer, and amateur photographer. Follow this article’s author on Twitter.

Got an Apple, Mac, or iOS tech question? We have the answer. In this week’s installment of Ask, we’ll help you figure out how to get FaceTime running (or not) on all your iOS devices.

Question: How can I receive FaceTime calls on my iPad but not my iPhone? Right now only the iPhone rings. 

Answer: You can turn off FaceTime on a device-by-device basis. To turn off all FaceTime calls on your iPhone, navigate to Settings > FaceTime. Once here, move the switch from on to off. This will completely disable FaceTime calls on your device. By the same token, make sure that FaceTime is activated on your iPad.

You can also disable certain phone numbers and email addresses that can receive FaceTime calls by unchecking the contact numbers listed in this section. Note that if you have an iPhone, you cannot disable FaceTime calls to the phone number of the device unless you completely disable all FaceTime calls. 

No more FaceTime calls will come in on the device after disabling this option.

To get your iPad (or any other device that you wish to receive FaceTime calls on) set up properly, you’ll want to make sure that a few things are configured correctly: 

1. Make sure that you’re signed into the proper Apple ID. If you’re not, you can tap the Apple ID in this section to sign out and sign into the correct one. 

2. Make sure that the people calling you are using one of the numbers that are listed in the “You can be reached by FaceTime at” section, and that those numbers are checked. Unchecked emails and numbers in this section means that you cannot be contacted using those emails or numbers. 

3. If you’re still not receiving FaceTime calls, then ensure that you’re connected to Wi-Fi (if your cellular plan doesn’t support FaceTime), and that your Internet connection speed can support FaceTime. FaceTime requires a minimum of 100Kb/s connection upstream and downstream for non-HD video.

Ask is written by Cory Bohon, a freelance technology writer, indie Mac and iOS developer, and amateur photographer.

Got a tech question? Email ask@maclife.com.

Every Monday we show you how to do something quick and cool using built-in OS X utilities such as Terminal, Apple’s command line application. These easy hacks can make life better and simpler, and don’t require any knowledge of coding — all you need is a keyboard to type ’em out!

Mission Control was released with OS X Lion to provide an easy-to-use switching manager for using multiple apps and desktops under a single user interface. As with other areas of OS X, animations in Mission Control are prevalent, but they do take time, and when switching your apps you want the fastest possible experience. Fortunately, with a little Terminal trick, you can reduce the time spent on these animations. Continue reading and we’ll show you how it’s done.

To speed up the animations on Mission Control, open the Terminal (located in /Applications/Utilities), and type in the following command, followed by the enter key:

defaults write com.apple.dock expose-animation-duration -float 0.15

To make the changes take effect, you can either log out and back in, or type the following command into Terminal to restart the Dock:

killall Dock

After restarting the Dock, the new and speedier animations will be available when activating both Exposé and Mission Control.

If you wish to restore the Mission Control animations to their default speed, then open the Terminal and type the following command followed by the enter key:

defaults delete com.apple.dock expose-animation-duration

Again, you can make the changes take effect by either logging out and back in, or by typing the following command into Terminal:

killall Dock

Cory Bohon is a freelance technology writer, indie Mac and iOS developer, and amateur photographer. Follow this article’s author on Twitter.

Got an Apple, Mac, or iOS tech question? We have the answer. In this week’s installment of Ask, we explain how to address the “cannot find server” error message while browsing the web on a Mac.

Question: Since upgrading to Mavericks, I’ve had a number of seemingly random “cannot find server” error messages using both Safari and Firefox, even when my computer is fully online and other people can visit the same websites. I assume it’s my computer or OS X. What is going on and how can I remedy this? 

Answer: Usually, this happens when there’s either an issue with the website you’re connecting to, or there’s something going wrong between your computer and the server you’re trying to connect to.

Fortunately, OS X includes a handy way to check what’s going on, and can then offer up tips to remedy the network-related issue(s). The next time you encounter the problem, navigate to System Preferences > Network > Assist Me… > Diagnostics….

Diagnostics can provide an easy solution for figuring out what’s going on with your Internet connection or LAN.

When the Network Diagnostics application appears, select your mode of connecting to the Internet (it should already be selected for you). As you continue to walk through this diagnostics tool, you’ll be prompted to select the network you’re attempting to connect to. The tool will then go through and attempt to figure out if you’re having ISP issues, local network issues, or whether something else is going on. Once completed, you’ll get a diagnostics report explaining the situation and how you might be able to remedy the problem.

Using the Network Diagnostics tool, your network will be put to the test, and you’ll receive an error report at the end detailing the issue.

Ask is written by Cory Bohon, a freelance technology writer, indie Mac and iOS developer, and amateur photographer.

Got a tech question? Email ask@maclife.com.

Every Monday we show you how to do something quick and cool using built-in OS X utilities such as Terminal, Apple’s command line application. These easy hacks can make life better and simpler, and don’t require any knowledge of coding — all you need is a keyboard to type ’em out!

It can occasionally become important to know and understand your public IP address for your Internet connection. Whether you’re running your own server or potentially using SSH to connect remotely, knowing your public IP can be beneficial. Unfortunately, most of the ways to find out your public IP address require visiting arcane websites or calling up your ISP (Internet service provider). Fortunately, there’s an easier way thanks to the Terminal. Continue reading and we’ll show you how to retrieve your public IP address.

There is a service called IPEcho that will figure out your IP address and allow you to display it using a simple Terminal command; and while you could look up your IP address via a website or through Google by typing “What is my IP address?” using this command can provide extra functionality by including it in scripts.

To get the public IP address of your Internet connection, open the Terminal application (located in /Applications/Utilities), and type in the following command:

curl ipecho.net/plain; echo

After doing this, you will notice that the IP address will be printed to the screen. While this is a simplistic use of the command, you could theoretically use it in conjunction with a shell script to add even more functionality, such as automatically reporting an IP address change.

Cory Bohon is a freelance technology writer, indie Mac and iOS developer, and amateur photographer. Follow this article’s author on Twitter.

Every Monday, we’ll show you how to do something new and simple with Apple’s built-in command line application. You don’t need any fancy software or a knowledge of coding to do any of these. All you need is a keyboard to type ’em out!The Dock has been …

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Every Monday, we’ll show you how to do something new and simple with Apple’s built-in command line application. You don’t need any fancy software, or a knowledge of coding to do any of these. All you need is a keyboard to type ’em out!Sometimes you may…

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Every Monday, we’ll show you how to do something new and simple with Apple’s built-in command line application. You don’t need any fancy software, or a knowledge of coding to do any of these. All you need is a keyboard to type ’em out!If you’ve ever ha…

Every Monday, we’ll show you how to do something new and simple with Apple’s built-in command line application. You don’t need any fancy software, or a knowledge of coding to do any of these. All you need is a keyboard to type ’em out!Last week, we cov…

Every Monday, we’ll show you how to do something new and simple with Apple’s built-in command line application. You don’t need any fancy software, or a knowledge of coding to do any of these. All you need is a keyboard to type ’em out!We’ve talked abou…