Welcome to the Solutions-Mac LLC Blog. Follow news, commentary and reviews on the latest Apple and iOS products here. Come back for occasional Mac and iPhone tips and tricks as well as interesting news and commentary from around the web.
Move To iCloud From MobileMe by June
Keep in mind, as the year moves along, that Apple's MobileMe service will terminate on June 30th of this year. If you would like to maintain your MobileMe email address, you should plan on moving your account from MobileMe to iCloud before June.
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Scanning Your Network
For any one of a number of reasons, we are sometimes put into a position where we need to scan our network for other devices and IP addresses. While this can be done from the Command Line using Terminal, there are two excellent scanning utilities that can be used to discover devices on a local area network (LAN).
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Thoughts on The Kindle Fire
I've been trying to enjoy my Kindle Fire from the day it was released. Really hard. I've read several books on it, watched a movie, browsed the web and checked in at the Newsstand. I'm sorry to say - the Fire is a major disappointment. …
Before You Upgrade to Lion
Before you upgrade to Lion, best practice recommends that you take the following steps:
1) Confirm that your Mac is Lion capable. (For this, see the previous blog post.)
2) Make sure that you have a full backup of your current Mac. …
Upgrading to Lion: System Requirements
As you plan to upgrade to Lion, you must check to see if your Mac meets the following system requirements:
1) An Intel Core 2 Duo Processor or Higher (all 64 bit processors)
2) 2 GB RAM
3) 7 GB of free disk space
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5 Reasons to Upgrade to Lion
The Apple website mentions that there are over 250 new features in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. A list that large can be overwhelming.
Here are the top 5 reasons an upgrade to Lion is a good choice.
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In Memoriam: Steve Jobs
I mourn the passing of Steve Jobs.
For close to 30 years, one way or another, he has been a factor in my life. The story of my “computing life” is a story of interest and involvement in Apple.
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Sophos Antivirus Software
Mac owners have become comfortable with the idea that virus issues which plague PC / Windows users are not their problem. But - sometimes they are a problem for Mac users as well.
Consider the case where a PC user sends to your Mac a Word document infected with a virus. …
Backups - Offsite
If you value your digital data, be it photos, music or digital documents, an offsite backup is critical to your peace of mind. If Irene (the hurricane) taught us anything, we have been reminded that we live on an island and may be forced to leave our homes and/or businesses at a moment's notice.
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How to Reset Your Password - Part Two
If you have completely forgotten your password, you will be unable to reset it using the method outlined in Part One of our blog.
You should follow these steps to reset an Account Password for an Administrator on your Mac who has forgotten their password.
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How to Reset Your Password - Part One
For any number of reasons - security the highest among them - it's a good idea to reset the account password on your Mac on a regular basis. Assuming you remember your current password, here's the simplest way to do so.
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How Long Since Last Restart
To learn how long it's been since you last Shut Down or Restarted your Mac, follow these steps:
1) Launch Terminal. (You can find the Terminal application in the Utilities folder on your Mac.) …
Migrate Time Machine Backup in Lion
Snow Leopard and Leopard users are familiar with Time Machine and may have used a Time Machine backup to recover from a failed startup drive. I, for one, have done so on more than one occasion.
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Use a Magic Trackpad with Lion
To get the most out of your Lion upgrade, make sure to use a Magic Trackpad.
If you are ordering a brand new iMac or Mac Pro with Lion already installed, make sure to order a Magic Trackpad.
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New Quick Look Features in Lion
Lion and Snow Leopard users are familiar with the terrific features included in Quick Look: Select an icon in a Finder window or on your desktop, hit the Space bar once and Voila - up pops a "quick look" at the document in question without actually having to open it.
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First Lion Reviews Are In
The MacRumors website has published a sampling / summary of early Lion reviews.
David Pogue of the NY Times comments in part, "The Lion upgrade, in other words, is classic Apple: innovative to some, gimmicky to others, big leaps forward, a few stumbles back."
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MS Office 2004 on Lion Will Not Run
If you are running (and rely on) MS Office 2004, it's important that you NOT update to Lion without updating MS Office first.
MS Office 2004 will not run on Lion. It's time to update to MS Office 2011 if you are planning to update your OS to Lion. …
Quicken on Lion Will Not Run
The short of it: According to Intuit, the following versions of Quicken for Mac (Quicken for Mac 2005, 2006 or 2007) will not work on Lion. Only Quicken Essentials will work on Macs that are updated to Lion.
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Filemaker Support on Lion
As the release of Mac OS Lion approaches - perhaps in the upcoming week with the announcement of Apple's financials on Tuesday - we've noticed that no version of FileMaker Pro or Server is supported with Mac OS X Lion.
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QuickBooks Support on Lion
On this past Tuesday, Intuit, the developer of QuickBooks for Mac, announced that the company will not offer support for QuickBooks 2009 and 2010 users who upgrade to Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.
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