Mac Must Knows

Dashboard is great. Tons of cool widgets that let you do almost anything.

But having all these widgets does affect your computer.

Each widget needs a bit of memory to run. Some more then others.

Certain widgets need so much space they will slow down your computer. The ones that keep updating to show new info are probably the worst.

Don't feel like you can't have these widgets. I use them, they're great.

But if you want to give your computer a little boost just open dashboard and remove the widgets you don't need/use. Doing this will help take some strain off your computer.

If you don't use dashboard, why not disable it? This too will save you some energy.

The easiest way to disable dashboard is with Onyx. It's under: Parameters ---> Expose and Dashboard.

If you don't want to download Onyx you can turn it off with Terminal... it's more technical but you can do it.

This guide will tell you how to do it: http://www.macworld.com/article/46236/2005/08/disabledashboard.html

Good Luck!

Keeping your software up to date is a great way to make sure things are running their fastest.

Developers are continually updating their software. They fix code errors and optimize the current code. This makes the software run faster, less likely to crash and so on.

Just make a point of setting your software to check for updates or do it yourself.

Some applications don't have anything that let's you check for updates though. In this case you can go to the site where you downloaded it and check that you have the newest version.

But let's face it. Do you really want to do this with ALL your applications? I don't think so.

Luckily I know a good solution.

Download the AppUpdate widget. It's a widget that checks that all your software is up to date. It makes all this much easier and quicker.

Read more about AppUpdate here.

Anyone with tons of applications will know how hard it is to keep things up to date.

Some applications will check for updates when you run them, but others don't. This means to know when updates come out you have to keep checking back to their website.

Doing this means you'll always have the latest updates... but it's also a waste of time.

So how can we check ALL our apps for the latest updates... all at once.

Well recently I stumbled across a widget that does this for you.

It's called "App Update". It finds all the latest updates for your apps with a click. App Update does this by checking for the latest version on different sites. These sites keep track of the application releases and let you know if you have the newest releases.

You can set it to check for you whenever you want and however often you want. You can customize it down to how it looks for each app.

It's a great little widget that makes updating applications quick and easy.

If you like that you will also want to give Widget Update a try. Exact same thing... but for widgets.

Both great little widgets definitely worth taking a look at.

Here are the websites.

App Update: http://retiredblog.gkaindl.com/downloads/app-update/

Widget Update: http://retiredblog.gkaindl.com/downloads/widget-update/

Enjoy!

#2 On the list of "Top 10 Mac Applications" is AppZapper.

With a Mac, installing and uninstalling is as easy as moving a package to or from the "Application" folder.

Or is it?

Adding an application is very straight forward. Drag the app to the "Application" Folder. But how about removing applications?

Well, when you move the file and run the app, other program files get moved to different areas in your computer.

Then down the road you don't want that anymore. So what do you do? Drag the file to the garbage. Fine, but one small problem with this though.

The other files that were installed are left behind.

AppZapper is an application that removes the ENTIRE application, leaving no trace behind.

Now this isn't much for something you have to buy, so it does other things.

AppZapper also makes it easy to install plugins, widgets and preference pane items you may have installed. It's kind of like the ultimate Mac uninstaller.

You only buy it once (for the small price of 12.95$) and you get free updates for life, give it a try at:

AppZapper website: http://www.appzapper.com/