Dan writes about OS X, iOS, troubleshooting, utilities, and cool apps, and he covers hardware, mobile and AV gear, input devices, and accessories. He's been writing about tech since 1994, and he's also published software, worked in IT, and been a policy analyst. More by Dan Frakes
Your Mac’s keyboard makes it easy to type any of the standard characters—the ones used most frequently in everyday typing. But OS X lets you use hundreds of special characters that don’t appear on your keyboard’s keys. This week’s video explains three ways to access special characters in OS X.
Transcript
Your Mac’s keyboard makes it easy to type any of the standard characters—the ones used most frequently in everyday typing. But OS X lets you use hundreds of special characters that don’t appear on your keyboard’s keys. These include special symbols for currency and punctuation, symbols, and much more.
Dan has been writing about all things Apple since 2006, when he first started contributing to the MacUser blog. Since then he's covered most of the company's major product releases and reviewed every major revision of iOS. In his "copious" free time, he's usually grinding away on a novel or two. More by Dan Moren
Beginning in Mountain Lion, OS X features social media integration options with both Twitter and Facebook, letting you post to the services from the OS itself, as well as sync contacts.
To associate an account, open up System Preferences and go to the Mail, Contacts & Calendars preference pane. You’ll see a list of accounts that you’ve already set up; just click the Plus (+) button at the bottom to add a new one.
When prompted, choose the type of account you’d like to set up. In this example, we’ll use a Twitter account. Enter your Twitter username and password in the following sheet and click Sign In.
Lex uses a MacBook Pro, an iPhone 5, an iPad mini, a Kindle 3, a TiVo HD, and a treadmill desk, and loves them all. His latest book, a children's book parody for adults, is called "The Kid in the Crib." Lex lives in New Jersey with his wife and three young kids. More by Lex Friedman
Notification Center on Mountain Lion is quite useful. But sometimes, you end up with a bunch of stacked notifications that you’re not quite ready to dismiss—but that are annoyingly covering up important stuff on your screen. Here’s how to handle it.
We all use our own approaches for staying organized. For better or worse, I tend to manage my day to day life with Reminders—specifically, Apple’s Reminders app for the Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
Serenity has been writing and talking and tinkering with Apple products since she was old enough to double-click. In her spare time, she sketches, writes, acts, sings, and wears an assortment of hats. More by Serenity Caldwell
Both the iPhone and the iPod touch make for stellar pocket cameras, and the iPad and iPad mini aren’t too bad in a pinch either. An iOS device isn’t perfect for every photographic need. But it can serve awfully well in many situations where you might once have needed a digital camera.
The simplest way to shoot photos and video with your iPhone is to use Apple’s built-in Camera app. The app launches by default in still-image mode; you can take a shot by tapping the Camera icon at the bottom of the screen or by pressing the Volume Up or Volume Down button. Switch between the front and back cameras by tapping the Camera icon (with the circular arrows) in the upper right corner; shoot video or photos by tapping the Photos/Video slider in the bottom right corner in portrait mode (or in the upper right corner in landscape mode).
You may be able to ditch your heavy laptop and take along your iPad instead, if you use an external keyboard for long typing sessions. In this video, I show you how to use a keyboard with your iPad and we take a look at some keyboards made especially for that purpose.
Transcript
This is Macworld senior editor Scholle Sawyer McFarland.
