#liontips

Here's how to change the frequency of Software Update check in OS X Mountain Lion, which does not allow the user to change it via System Preferences. 

OS X Mountain Lion launched with 200+ user features, back in July, but then, there were some of the basic, less used features removed from the system. We've already been writing some tutorials on this, and today, this quick tutorial will let you set the update frequency that the OS has to follow to check for new software updates.

By default, Mountain Lion checks for Software Update every 7 days, but this can be overridden by changing the number of days via Terminal using a small command. But then, checking for new software update once in a week is more than sufficient for a normal user. If you still want to change the frequency of the software update, and play around, just follow the steps below:

How to change the update check frequency in OS X Mountain Lion?

Launch Terminal (From Launchpad or from Spotlight)

Past the following command into Terminal sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate ScheduleFrequency 4

Press Enter, and key in your password

And that's it! You're done!

The number 4 at the end of the command is the number of days after which the OS will check for Software Update. If you want to revert back to original state, just change the number to 7, and it would go back to normal! Here's the video explaining this trick:

[youtube clip="GjQuQhhuh7s"]

Merge all the separate Windows into Tabs in Safari for Mac OS X by creating a keyboard shortcut under System Preferences.

Safari for Mac OS X has been receiving some very good updates lately and many users still have the habit of using windows instead of using tabs. But if you are one of those who are practicing the habit of using Tabs instead of Windows, this keyboard shortcut would be useful.

Mac OS X has an in-built way to set custom keyboard shortcuts under System Preferences, and you can configure those keyboard shortcuts to almost everything you want. Right from Opening a new Window to shutting down the Mac. To merge the Safari Windows into tabs, we are going to set a keyboard shortcut to quickly do this stuff. Let's now take a look at how this could be done!

How to merge Safari Windows into Tabs on Mac OS X:

Open up System Preferences (You can access it either from the ? menu of from the Launcher)

Select the Keyboard option

Now, click on Keyboard Shortcuts tab

Choose the Application Shortcuts option from the list

Click on the + button. This would bring up an option to add a new shortcut

From the dropdown, select the Safari.app

Set the type as Merge All Windows

Now, set the desired key combination. For ex. I chose Command+Option+M

Finally, Click on Add.

And that's it! You're done!

Hope this helps! Let us know if you find some trouble in doing this! We'll be glad to help you out!

Remember: This has not been tested on Safari 6 yet.

A simple Terminal Command will give you some additional CPU usage information like CPU Family, Model, etc., on your Mac!

Mac's Terminal is a very powerful tool and is usually spelled as the advanced users, but that is not the case. Some of the commands are really very easy to execute and these commands are really very powerful, which the normal user can also try out. One such powerful command is the sysctl command, which gives you in-depth information about your Mac's CPU.

The command returns some advanced information of your CPU like your CPU's clock speed, number of threads, your CPU's make, cache size, sensor data, thermal sensor's data and number of cores in your CPU. Now, let's get to know how you could execute this command and get additional information about your CPU.

How to get additional information about your Mac's CPU?

Fireup Terminal.app (Search in Spotlight or open it from Applications folder)

Execute the following command:

sysctl -a | grep machdep.cpu

And, that's it. The Terminal will give you all the information about your CPU. Here;s how the command throws the result on my CPU:

There are some more commands that are capable of doing some powerful tasks like these, giving you additional and in-depth information about your Mac. Sysctl is just a start. I will be posting some more commands of this kind often!

Here's how you could re-arrange or remove icons from your Mac OS X's Menu Bar as you wish. This trick works on Mac OS X Lion and Snow Leopard as well. 

Do you think your apps are making your Mac's Menu Bar dirty and want to re-order them or in-fact remove them? Well, there's a way for that in Mac OS X. The trick is really Simple. All you need to do is, just Hold the Command (?) key and at the same time, Drag the icon you want to re-arrange or the icon you want to remove. Dragging an icon out of the Menu Bar will remove it from the Menu Bar, whereas dragging it towards the sides will re-arrange them.

This trick would help for re-arranging or removing icons of almost all the applications. But some applications' icons will not be draggable and Using the Command key will not do the trick. And as you might expect, the Spotlight's icon will not be movable or removable. But there's a trick to remove the Spotlight's icon from the Mac's Menu Bar, but I think we all use Spotlight over and over again!

If you are such a geek and run a lot of apps on your Mac, then the apps would consume a lot of space on the Menu Bar, making it look clustered. This trick will do the work for you! Let us know if you find some more interesting tips at the comments section!

Analyze your Wireless Signal Strength and more with this built-in tool that comes with the Mac OS X Lion. This tool can help you improve your WiFi performance by tweaking some settings!

Apple's Mac OS X Lion shipped with a whole lot of features and interestingly, some of the tools that Apple has built for testing are also hidden inside the System. One such tool is the WiFi Diagnostics tool. The tool is well designed, which aligns with the Steve's Principle. The WiFi Diagnostics tool helps you get detailed reports about the Signal Strength, the number of packets sent and received, Analyze each packet that are getting transferred from the Mac and more.

The tool is Apple branded and this tool can help you improve the WiFi network performance by allowing you to make some cool adjustments as you use the tool. And for some reason, the tool has been hidden inside the CoreServices folder and is not visible for the end-user. But nevertheless, you can always access the Library folder, which is hidden by default on your OS X Lion, with this tutorial I posted earlier. Once you get access to your Library folder, you can make a few clicks to reach the WiFi Diagnostics tool.

So, lets now get into the tool and try some tweaks that would probably improve your WiFi Performance.

Navigate to /System/Library/CoreServices/ folder.

Check for WiFi Diagnostics app and open it!

Now that you are in the app, you will now see this screen, where it allows you to Choose between some options of the tool. Now, let's just Monitor our Wireless signal strength and performance. All we have to do is just select Monitor wireless performance and click Continue.

Now in the next screen, the app shows a comparison chart that shows the live statistics of your Wireless Network. The Yellow line is the WiFi Signal and the Green one is the Noise of your WiFi network. The lower the Noise, the better is your performance of your WiFi network. Noise is the disturbance in the WiFi connection that should be reduced to make the max out of the WiFi Router.

Noise can be reduced by changing your WiFi router's antenna or move the router away from electrical disturbances, etc. Once you are done capturing some statistics about your WiFi router and network, you are good to go with two other important options. One is to save the Diagnostics information to your HDD and the other is to send it via email. This information would help you compare the difference between your performances after you change some parameters of your router.

There might be vast differences between WiFi networks, since the Noise is not constant everywhere. Find a best place to place your router, so that the device is away from external noises that interfere with other frequencies. Did you run this diagnostics? What difference did you find? Share some tips in the comments!

打开系统偏好设置，找到万能辅助，在鼠标与触控板栏里，点击‘触控板选项...’ 然后把‘拖移’勾选，后面选择‘使用拖移锁定’ 后，又可以使用双击拖移锁定了。