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Introduction to iTunes Match

Monday, November 21 2011 by chrisb iTunes

All of your Music Everywhere

Regular iCloud accounts include iTunes in the Cloud that syncs your iTunes music, app and book purchases across all of your Macs and iDevices. iTunes Match is an add-on to iCloud that Apple released last week.

Most people have music in their iTunes Library from sources other than the iTunes Store like Amazon MP3 or ripped from CDs (Remember CDs?) iTunes Match is a $25 per year add-on to iCloud that allows you to sync (almost) all of your music across your Macs and iDevices regardless of how you obtained it.

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Is your Mac backed up?

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The Backup Plan is available exclusively on Amazon in Kindle format. A Kindle device is not required to read the ebook. Kindle apps are available for Macs, PCs and mobile devices. Members of Amazon Prime with a Kindle device can borrow this ebook for free.

Zooming Windows vs. Maximize

Friday, November 18 2011 by chrisb OS X

Make your windows fill up more of the screen

The Zoom button <br>Click to see a larger image

The Zoom button
Click to see a larger image

The green button on the left side of the title bar will Zoom that window. Zoom works something like Maximize on a PC, but it behaves differently.

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Cool Tools: CuteClips

Thursday, November 17 2011 by chrisb OS X

Using multiple clipboards

CuteClips <br>Click to see a larger image

CuteClips
Click to see a larger image

The clipboard is a great place to temporarily store data to make it easy to move it from one place to another. The only downside to the Mac clipboard is that there is only one of them. What if you could keep many clipboards and access the information on them whenever you needed? That is what CuteClips does.

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Shortcuts to Email a Safari Link

Wednesday, November 16 2011 by chrisb OS X

Quick emailing

Customize the Safari toolbar <br>Click to see a larger image

Customize the Safari toolbar
Click to see a larger image

When you find an interesting web page that you want to share with someone, you can email them the link or the entire page.

Here are a couple of ways to make that process even simpler.

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The Mac App Store - One Year Later

Tuesday, November 15 2011 by chrisb OS X

Where to get your apps

Mac App Store <br>Click to see a larger image

Mac App Store
Click to see a larger image

In January 2001, Apple opened the Mac App Store. There is little doubt that the Mac Apple Store (MAS) has been a huge success helping Mac users discover and buy apps. More and more developers are moving to the MAS to sell their apps.

There is a wrinkle in the system however that is causing some confusion. To abide by the strict rules for inclusion in the MAS, some apps have had to strip out some of their features. This leads developers to create two versions of their app: one for sale in the MAS and one for all other channels.

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Basics4Mac EXTRAS

Articles at the intersection of computers and life

What's this?

As I comb through the Mac news of the day, I often come across articles that aren't tip material but that I think would be interesting to Basics4Mac readers. The links below go directly to the website that hosts the article.

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MACWORLD: Why the iTunes Store succeeded - 4/28/13

MACWORLD: Why the iTunes Store succeeded - 4/28/13
The history of music retailing goes something like this. Throughout the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s the LP (Long Play album) was the long-form audio format du jour. If you wanted to purchase just a single song, you bought a 45-rpm disc, a smaller record that featured a hit song on side A and a lesser-known song on the B side. As tape players began to show up in homes and cars, 8-track tapes and cassettes became popular. You could purchase cassette singles, though they weren’t terribly popular.

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ARS TECHNICA: Five ways Congress should improve the copyright system - 4/28/13

ARS TECHNICA: Five ways Congress should improve the copyright system - 4/28/13
In a Wednesday speech, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) announced plans for a "comprehensive review" of copyright law. The announcement is significant because Goodlatte chairs the House Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over copyright issues. "I am announcing today that the House Judiciary Committee will hold a comprehensive series of hearings on US copyright law in the months ahead," Goodlatte said. "The goal of these hearings will be to determine whether the laws are still working in the digital age. I welcome all interested parties to submit their views and concerns to the Committee."

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ARS TECHNICA: 78-minute Steve Jobs comedy film iSteve now online - 4/28/13

ARS TECHNICA: 78-minute Steve Jobs comedy film iSteve now online - 4/28/13
Comedy site FunnyorDie has released its comedic Steve Jobs film, iSteve, on its website, the first of a handful of Jobs films planned for release this year. The 78-minute film was slated for release on April 15, but FunnyorDie delayed it for two days following the Boston Marathon bombing on Monday. It's now available in its full glory on FunnyorDie's website, starring "Get a Mac" actor Justin Long as Steve Jobs.

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ARS TECHNICA: Where’s my Knight Rider 2000? A MyFord Touch owner’s lament - 3/18/13

ARS TECHNICA: Where’s my Knight Rider 2000? A MyFord Touch owner’s lament - 3/18/13
In early February, I bought a 2013 Ford Escape equipped with MyFord Touch. In many ways, the system, which was developed jointly by Ford and Microsoft, is a driver's best friend. But best friends can be idiosyncratic sometimes, and they occasionally drive you nuts—especially when they argue with your other best friends (like your smart phone). These friends occasionally stop talking to each other, and one might even interrupt calls to your mom because they've decided it's time to perform "routine maintenance."

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TidBITS: Thoughts on — and of — a Computer Science Major - 3/6/13

TidBITS: Thoughts on — and of — a Computer Science Major - 3/6/13
Like many others, I entered college from a high school where students were rewarded with good grades for memorizing and regurgitating the correct answers. I was great at that and always received above-average grades. I learned what was required from textbooks and was tested on it. There was no guessing as to what resources or subject matter to study. Alas, while my grades may have helped me get into college, high school otherwise didn’t do much to prepare me for the University of Virginia.

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