Posts Tagged ‘Mac’
Question Asked: Can I Run Mac OS X On a PC?
You can, but not very easily. Running Windows on a Mac is relatively easy compared to the other way around, using Bootcamp, Parallels, or VMVare.
However, running OS X on a PC, you’d need to built what’s referred to as a “hackintosh”. A machine specifically built for the purpose of running OS X.
PCs and OS X have different standards as to what will make them “work” for the machine itself. The majority of standard PCs aren’t capable of running OS X, so you need something custom.
Lifehacker has a great walk through to build one of these “hackintosh” computers for less than $800. Check out their tutorial here.
Question Asked: How Can I Lock My Mac?
Locking your computer when you’re not at it is one thing that Windows does out of the box that OS X doesn’t. You can lock your Mac though, don’t worry. You just need to do a few things first.
For starters, you need to enable fast user switching.
To turn on fast user switching, open the System Preferences and click on theAccounts icon under the System category. Click on Login Options near the lower left and click the Enable fast user switching checkbox.
Fast User Switching
Once activated, you’ll be able to click on the Accounts icon in the top right corner of your computer, and select “Show Login Screen.”
This won’t log you out, but will make it appear that you have. Keep in mind that if someone else has an account on your Mac, and they login from the login screen, you’ll get logged out.
If you prefer a simpler way to lock the mac, once Fast User Switching is turned on, I’d recommend checking out MacLoc (link).
MacLoc is a small, lightweight program that enables the Fast User Switching to happen without having to mouse up to that corner, and select the login screen option.
You can set MacLoc to be opened with some keyboard shortcuts, as well.
Question Asked: How Do I Export To MP3 From Garageband?
If, like me, you’re used to Adobe Audition, or ProTools, you’re looking for an easy “Export to MP3″ option, in the File menu, which there isn’t.
Though it’s not very hard to export to an MP3 in Garageband.
Once you’ve got your mix all set, and ready to mixdown to an MP3, just do the following:
1) Select “Share”
2) Select “Send to iTunes”
3) Fill out the necessary fields that Garageband asks you for.
4) Open in iTunes.
Once in iTunes, you can convert the AIFF file to an MP3. (The default export from Garageband is AIFF, but easily changeable.)
Once the file’s in iTunes, you can just navigate to your iTunes library folder on your computer, and the MP3 is there, just like any other track in your iTunes library. Pretty simple.
Question Asked: Why Did Microsoft Stop Making Outlook for Macs?
After installing Office 2008 on a Mac for a friend of mine recently, I asked myself the same thing. I pondered “What the hell is Entourage doing in place of Outlook?”, so I looked it up.
Apparently, Outlook on Macs was only being used by 7% of Mac users, mostly corporate settings, in conjunction with Exchange.
When time came to develop a new version of Office, Microsoft weighted the cost of developing a new version, verses how many people would use it, and decided that it wasn’t cost effective to make a new version.
Entourage (which is very similar to Mac Mail) was used in its place, because it was already developed for Mac.
Question Asked: How Do I Run Windows on my Mac?
It’s actually surpringly easy. If you’re like me, there’s some applications that you absolutely need that are PC only, and therefore need to run Windows on your Mac. In that case, it’s pretty simple.
Pick up a copy of Parallels for Mac. It’ll cost you $79.99 at the Apple store.
Install it on your Mac, which should only take a minute or two. Once installed, click on the “Run Windows” icon. If you don’t have Windows installed, it’ll ask you to install it.
You must have a valid copy of Windows to install, either on disc, or an image of the disc.
The Parallels software will automatically set up your Mac with a virtual computer for the Windows install, and pretty much do everything itself. Don’t be intimidated when you open Parallels by the 300 page instruction manual. The “basic” operation of the software will virtually install itself, without very much interaction on your behalf.
Once Windows is installed, you simply open Parallels, select Windows, and voila. You can then run any Windows application that you want, on your Mac.