Apple miscellaneous

Summary

This page gives miscellaneous guidance related to OS X

Apple

Some useful pages on Apple's website

OS X

Not version specific

This OSXDefaults script shows many default preferences. You can copy and paste preference settings you want to set in a terminal window or create a script of your own based on this one. You may want to check the actual value of a preference on your system before changing it so you can reverse the change if you need to.

OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard

Snow Leopard is no longer maintained, but some security fixes have been published independently:

OS X 10.10 Yosemite

Yosemite's continuity features (Handoff, Instant Hotspot, call transfer and Airdrop) require Bluetooth 4.0 to be activated. Not all Macs have Bluetooth 4.0 hardware. Some of these Yosemite features can be activated in earlier Macs either by using an external dongle or by replacing the internal Airport card with compatible hardware. In some instances an activation patching software is also needed.

  • The Continuity Activation Tool web page maintains a chart listing the compatibility of most Macs and what hardware and/or tool are needed to activate the continuity features.

Note that as the MAC address of the Airport card is used to identify the computer to authorise it with iTunes, prior to changing the Airport card you should 'Deauthorize This Computer' in iTunes, and afterwards 'Authorize This Computer' (this is in the Store menu). Also you will need to recreate any Bluetooth pairings you had set up as the address of the Bluetooth interface will also have changed.

Troubleshooting:

When it all works, here's how to use these features: Connect your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac using Continuity.

Macs

Booting Linux

The Mac Linux USB Loader is as its name suggests a USB boot loader for running Linux from a USB key on a Mac.

iPhones

Safety

References

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External links