Category Archives: mac
Ailing Mac? Try Drive Genius 3
When your Mac starts acting unreliably your first line of defense is Apple’s Disk Utility, but that solves a small number of problems, such as permissions and disk verification and repair. A good second line of defense is Drive Genius 3 for Mac from Prosoft Engineering. Drive Genius offers repair and maintenance utilities you can use to make sure your hard drive runs at maximum efficiency.
This US$99 suite of programs includes the following modules: Information, Defrag, DriveSlim, Repair, Scan, DrivePulse, Integrity Check, Initialize, Repartition, Duplicate, Shred, Benchtest, and Sector Edit. When you launch Drive Genius you can choose any one of the available utilities from a set of icons displayed across two screens. Each module presents an option to choose a drive, volume or files and folders on the right, depending on the utility’s purpose.
Disk Drill file recovery app moves to 2.0 release
We first looked at Disk Drill from Clever Files back in 2011. Now in its 2.0 release, this app continues to help prevent data loss by enabling you to recover lost files that you’ve already deleted.
The app goes beyond searching your garbage pail. This is meant for users who have already emptied their trash, and need to access that data from the file system. If you haven’t used some sort of data shredding app, chances are good that the deleted files are still recoverable.
Amazon’s MacBook Air stock dwindles
Last week TUAW reported on the diminishing numbers of MacBook Airs available from third-party retailers like Best Buy. Now the source of that information, AppleInsider, is reporting that Amazon is completely sold out of the 11.6-inch low-end MacBook Air (1.7 GHz Intel Core i5, 64 GB storage) with other models showing that they’re “n/a”.
AppleInsider points out that Amazon’s listing for the entry-level 11.6-inch model is “consistent with a discontinued item on Amazon, with no indication that stock will be replenished. In contrast, the online retailer typically portrays a simple stockout with availability advertised for ’1-2 months’.”
Stock of many MacBook Air configurations is limited at other retailers, including Best Buy, MacMall, J&R, and MacConnection. Apple Stores and the online store still show availability of both the 11.6-inch and 13-inch models.
Evernote introduces reminders to Mac, iOS apps
One of the reasons that I’ve never been a super-user of Evernote is that while it’s a great place to save your notes, scans, and other materials, it’s never had the ability to simply let you know when you need to get something done. Instead, it has always relied on another app to give you a heads-up that you need to work on something. Today, Evernote released updates for the Mac and iOS clients that introduce a build-in reminder function.
In a beautiful writeup of the feature over at MacStories.net, Federico Viticci details his experiences testing the reminders capability prior to release, saying that “reminders are a good addition that fit well with Evernote’s focus on remembering everything through a unified, polished interface.”
Parenting Tip: How to control what your child watches on YouTube
My kids are growing up as part of the Internet generation and, as a result, they love watching videos online. Being good Internet citizens, it’s not surprising their favorite videos involve cats doing silly tricks. I would love to let them loose on YouTube to watch their cat videos, but there is an unsavory side to the video website that pops up in searches or YouTube’s suggested videos list. Here are a few tips to help parents control the content that their child views on YouTube, and on the web, in general.
