os x | Small Business Tech Tips

Apple’s latest operating system, Mac OS X (10.10) Yosemite, is now available for free in the App Store. For anyone running Mac OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) or later, you can now download the free OS.

There are some restrictions, as Yosemite will only work on the following models:

iMac (Mid-2007 or later)
MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, Late 2008), (13-inch, Early 2009 or later)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2009 or later), (15-inch, Mid/Late 2007 or later), (17-inch, Late 2007 or later)
MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later)
Mac Mini (Early 2009 or later)
Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later)
Xserve (Early 2009)

You also need 2 GBs of RAM to run the OS and 8 GBs of hard drive space available. If you fit these requirements, then go get the new OS! It was just unveiled this week, after the latest keynote speech had finished (they mentioned it would be available immediately after the speech ended, however it took a few hours to get the download fully online).

There are many small improvements to the OS - the most notable one that a lot of Apple enthusiasts are excited about is the ability to make phone calls with your iPhone using your Mac. Apple worked quite a bit on trying to make the integration between the two devices seamless and more integrated. They also finally included AirDrop, between the iOS and the OS X systems, allowing you to easily share files now between your phone or tablet and your Mac.

The Notification Center has also received a hefty update, making it infinitely more useful. For anyone who enjoys staying connected to the outside world, you now have the ability to share your notifications on the various social media sites out there.

You can further review all of the really interesting upgrades, and download your copy of the new Mac OSx, Yosemite here.

October 7, 2014 Jeff

Mac Tips for Techs: Carbon Copy Cloner

Standard

As I’ve been getting into my blog-writing career here with Everon, I have been writing a lot of posts about Macs. My love of Macs started before I got into IT. Now that I am in IT I realize that, although I know a lot about the Windows OS, I am not as familiar with Macs, despite owning a few. In all reality, anything you do with a PC can be done on a Mac. (And there are many really cool tools that help you achieve your goals.)

In previous blogs, I have discussed a great cleanup tool called Onyx. I also discussed using the Network Utility tool for a Mac. In my latest blog, I want to discuss a tool that, before we were aware of the tool, we had tried for DAYS to get this working. This tool took our days of work and finished the job in 30 minutes. (I know: anyone who is more Mac-savvy probably could get the job done quicker, but for a Windows engineer, this was a tough task). The tool is called Carbon Copy Cloner.

Carbon Copy Cloner effectively and easily clones a drive in its entirety, so you can put a new drive in and change out hard drives. This is extremely important for many reasons. First off, if your drive is showing SMART errors, and you know the drive might fail soon (which you can find out by using Onyx), you will want to get a new drive in there ASAP. Also, in our case, the client wanted to go from a 240 GB drive to 1 TB in order to increase his disk space. I would also recommend using this if you want to use a solid state drive, as that is becoming the go-to for fast, reliable hard drives.

You can purchase a copy of Carbon Copy Cloner here: https://bombich.com/. However, you can also demo a 30-day trial, which works great for cloning one drive onto another. When starting up CCC, you simply choose your source drive and destination drive (also really great for complete backups), and allow it to copy.

Once done, if you were copying your bootable drive, you could then put the new drive in and boot off of it. If you are using it for backup, you could then mount the image and grab whatever you need. It is literally a one-for-one copy of your drive.

This product has a ton of other features, but I am not going to get into the details about those, as you can go to the site and review yourself. However this is my go-to every single time now for closing and replacing hard drives for a Mac. I would strongly urge you to review this product as well.

Up next for my Mac Tips for Techs: NetSpot. Your go-to tool for reviewing wireless networks.

September 25, 2014 Jesse Carpenter

5 Things You Need to Know About the BashBug

Standard

1. Don’t Panic.

As our favorite galactic traveler’s companion reminds us (ref. Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy), It’s important to keep problems in perspective. The Heartbleed Bug incited widespread panic for what turned out to be limited reasons. This new security bug is reported to be even bigger than Heartbleed, but it, too, has a relatively limited reach. It only affects Unix-based systems that use Bash. The best way to address it is to keep updated on the patches which are sent out. Some routers are also affected, and so updates will be pushed out to handle those as well.

2. What is the BashBug?

Bash is one of the central programs to the modern Unix operating system. It’s used to issue commands to the kernel of the OS. It is a little like the Windows command line. Mac’s desktop operating systems are built on Unix, and that’s why people are concerned. The BashBug is an exploitable nuance of the Bash shell that someone could use to observe and possibly modify an unknowing computer’s information. Basically, it’s like leaving your car window down.

3. I have an iPhone, should I be worried?

No. The iOS is a different operating system from the Desktop OS of MAC, known as OS X.

4. What if someone w/ a Mac emails me? Will my company be at risk? Can I “catch” the Bug this way?

No. The vulnerability is specific to Unix-based OSes. It can’t be transferred between operating systems. Windows has a fundamentally different underlying program, and it does not include Bash, which is the host for this bug.

5. What’s this thing about routers?

Some routers run on a variation of Linux. Manufacturers will also be pushing out updates to resolve this. Please contact your system administrator (which might be us) to resolve it if you have concerns. We can be reached at 888-244-1748.

August 18, 2011 Danny Sears 0

Apple 10.7 Lion available on Thumb Drive

Standard

Apple released yesterday a $69 bootable 10.7 Lion install option on a USB Thumb Drive. This is unprecedented in the industry, and just a fantastic idea in my opinion.

The drive comes with free shipping from the online store and can be used on multiple computers. Coming in at 3.49 GB in size, this thumb drive option may be more suitable for those who have limited bandwidth, firewall prevention, and multiple VLAN’s preventing the downloadable option.

Lion is the first downloadable operating system install that Apple has released, marking the beginning of an optical drive-less era, moving towards thinner and lighter notebooks, and faster bandwidth software experiences.

Lion offers many new features, a new cover (aqua-free), and incredible stability.

I have been using for about 3 months now, and highly recommend this version as a stable upgrade. Most software has been updated to match compatibility, and my computer has NEVER been faster.

Whether it be thumb drive or download, GET LION! You won’t be sorry.

July 6, 2011 Danny Sears 0

Apple 10.7 Lion…first look, and top 3 features!

Standard

Hey everyone,

So I was able to get my hands on this fancy new Apple OS called LION! Pretty cool, and I admire Apple’s persistence with the cat names. Can’t wait for Tabby to come out, for sure!

Digging in:

Apple 10.7 Lion is fluid and graphically beautifully, with MANY new features that provide ease of use and close reach to just about anything within your computer life you could possibly image for. And people, let me tell you, if you have a desktop Mac, GET A MAGIC TOUCHPAD! Cause these multi touch gestures are what this is ALL about.

Features!

Mission Control:

- I LOVE this new feature. Four fingers up, and you have EVERYTHING open on your computer and some things you use regular that aren’t that you may need access to at all times. Your entire computer, at a fingers’ touch, easy to access, and lightning fast!

Launch Pad:

- Ever wanted an iPad or iPhone on you laptop or big screen computer with the full functionality of a TRUE CPU style OS? Then Launch Pad has arrived for you! Launch pad glides with the look and feel of the application icon driven iOS. You can create category application groups and slide right and left just like on an iPad with multi touch gestures. Want to get to your launch pad? Pinch your fingers with 3 fingers and your thumb, and launch away!

Autosave and Resume!!!!

- Ok…Macs don’t ever crash, right? WRONG! They definitely are the most stable computers in the marketplace, but nothing is perfect, and I don’t know about you, but my computer has frozen, beach balled, and just plain shut down due to hardware failure before. So, doesn’t that just stink when this happens, and you lose the work you WISH you just pressed Command S just one more time!?

NOW, forget about it…Autosave and resume gives you the opportunity to return to your computer after a crash, right where you left off. Overwrite something by accident? Click on the menu at the top of your application wind and go back to the most previous version from before the last save. Or the version before that…or before that! Built in OS integrated versioning for all your applications. C’mon developers…let’s get that rolling in your applications dev please (hint hint Microsoft Office!)

So these are some incredible new features in Lion, the ones I love the most…

Lion will be hitting stores in July sometime…very soon…Get it! Get into it! Get involved!!!

Thanks for listening!