If you haven’t yet been hit by iMessage spam, you’re lucky: It’s awful. And it’s even worse when you realize that the spammer can know with certainty that the unwanted message really was delivered to you. As first noted by MacStories, Apple recently posted a way to deal with unwanted iMessages in your inbox.

Here’s the skinny.

When an unwanted, spammy iMessage arrives, first take a screenshot. (If you got the iMessage on your iOS device, press the Home and Sleep/Wake buttons at the same time. If you see the spammy iMessage on your Mac, use Command-Shift-3.)

Apple also needs to see the full email address or phone number of the person you received the spammy message from. You can either screenshot that data too, or copy and paste it.

Once you have all those details assem …

Source: Mac OSX Hints

You’re at a fine establishment which offers delicious, free Wi-Fi in addition to delicious, for-pay food. Perhaps served in bread bowls. But like your soup, the Wi-Fi eventually dries up: Restaurants and coffee shops that want to get customers out so that new ones can come in might boot you off the Wi-Fi automatically after thirty minutes.

But you’re not like other customers! You’re going back up to the line to buy another beverage and perhaps a scone. You deserve to get back on that Wi-Fi, dagnabbit. And there’s a way.

We’ve covered changing your MAC address via Terminal before. But now you know that you can use this trick to get back online at Panera Bread and other establishments with time-limited Wi-Fi.

First, get your current MAC address. You can find it in many places; one such place is System Preferences -> Network -> Wi-Fi -> Hardware tab. But since you’re about …

Source: Mac OSX Hints

Whether you’re frequently calling a friend or loved one who’s at extension 123, or you know that to speak to a human in tech support you need to press 2, then 1, then 2 again—you’ve no doubt faced the annoyance that is dialing said numbers on your iPhone. But there’s a better way that doesn’t require you toggle the visibility of the keypad after your call first connects.

As The Mac Observer explains, you can add certain details to a contact’s phone number to let your iPhone virtually punch the right buttons on its own. When you’re editing a contact, you can press the +*# key at the bottom left of the keypad to insert a Pause or a Wait.

As TMO explains, a Pause instructs your iPhone to wait two seconds, and then dial whichever numbers come next. A Wait actually adds a custom button the phone screen, so that you tap a single key to enter in a new series of digits whenever you’r …

Source: Mac OSX Hints

You already know that you can use Siri to ask for directions. You might say, “Give me directions to 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino, California,” or you might say “Take me home” when you’re out and about.

But there are a few other things you can say to Siri whilst your iOS device is helping you navigate, and you might not know about these options.

Ask Siri, “Are we there yet?”—or similar, less obnoxious incarnations of that query—and you’ll get an update on your estimated time of arrival. You can get more specific, too. Ask, “When is my next turn,” and Siri will give you the number of minutes until you should encounter it.

Tank running low? Ask Siri where the nearest gas station is, and you’ll get suggestions for fill-up spots along your current route. If you tap one, though, you’ll cancel your current navigation in lieu of the new destination instead.

Source: Mac OSX Hints

Quite some time ago, I needed to create a script which would mount a network volume. I did not want to hardcode username and password into the script, so I kept looking for ways to accomplish this using OS X’s built-in Keychain. The following example uses a script to mount a network volume, using variables for the currently logged-in user, and fetches its password from the Keychain. Of course, you can do other things with this approach, so I figured it might be of use to someone out there.

The following is a combination of these 2 links:
http://hintsforums.macworld.com/showthread.php?t=163359
http://blog.macromates.com/2006/keychain-access-from-shell/

This script gets the password for the currently logged in user and pulls its password from the Keychain. It then mounts a share using the variables without hardcoded …

Source: Mac OSX Hints

By Alex Brooks Apple today announced financial results for its third fiscal quarter of 2013 which ran from January April 1, 2013 until June 30. Apple posted revenue of $35.3 billion and net quarterly profit of $6.9 billion, or $7.47 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $35 billion and net profit of $8.8 billion, or $9.32 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.
Gross margin was 36.9 percent compared to 42.8 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 57 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
Gross margin continues to be the number that many analysts watch closely as it continues to fall quarter to quarter. Primary reasons for this drop include the tighter margins on the iPad mini and heightened sales of cheaper iPhone models. To see this trend in action the key indicator is the changing average sales price of Apple’s top products. The iPhone’s ASP has dropped from $613 in the year-ago quarter to $581, the iPad has dropped from $515 to $436.
Apple reported the following number of shipments for its products during the quarter:
31.2 million iPhones compared to 26 million in the year-ago-quarter
14.6 million iPads compared to 17 million in the year-ago-quarter
3.8 million Macs compared to 4 million in the year-ago quarter
4.5 million iPods compared to 6.7 million in the year-ago quarter.

“We are especially proud of our record June quarter iPhone sales of over 31 million and the strong growth in revenue from iTunes, Software and Services,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We are really excited about the upcoming releases of iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks, and we are laser-focused and working hard on some amazing new products that we will introduce in the fall and across 2014.”
“We generated $7.8 billion in cash flow from operations during the quarter and are pleased to have returned $18.8 billion in cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO.
Apple provided the following guidance for its fiscal 2013 fourth quarter:
revenue between $34 billion and $37 billion
gross margin between 36 percent and 37 percent
operating expenses between $3.9 billion and $3.95 billion
other income/(expense) of $200 million
tax rate of 26.5%

Source: World of Apple

ReadKit (http://www.readkitapp.com) is an RSS reader that synchronizes with multiple RSS services. It supports sending articles to read-later services such as Instapaper, Readability and Pocket. However, out of the box there is no way to send an article to Safari’s Reading List (aside from manually copy-and-pasting the URL into Safari).

Reading List (RL) is very handy if you have multiple iOS devices, since articles in RL are automatically synchronized and downloaded on each devices. Below, I will describe a simple service that import the currently selected article in ReadKit into RL.

Open Automator and create a new Service. Call the Service “Add to Reading List”

Select Service receives: “no input”

Click on the next drop-down box, select “Other…” and find ReadKit in the Applications folder

On the left-hand side sidebar, select “Utilities” and then double-click the action “Run AppleScript”

Copy and paste the c …

Source: Mac OSX Hints

My friend Frank works for Canon in Manhattan, and occasionally gives demos in a room with locked-down iPads. Sometimes those iPads need to be rebooted—but Frank has no access to the sleep/wake switch ostensibly required to power off an iPad.

In the past, I’ve suggested that Frank “reset” something (under Settings -> General -> Reset) that’s easy to set again; resetting Location & Privacy settings doesn’t mess too much up, and it restarts the iPad when you tap it.

But there’s a better way. Also in the Settings app, head to General -> Accessibility, and and turn on Assistive Touch. That adds a draggable dot control to your screen, meant for people with physical challenges that prevent them from triggering certain iOS actions the traditional way. Tap the dot, then tap Device, and finally tap and hold Lock Screen—a software equivalent of the sleep/wake button. After a few moments, the familiar Slide to Power Off message appears, and you can shut the iPad down.
…

Source: Mac OSX Hints

Google’s recent update for the Maps app introduced a variety of new features and improvements. One of those is the ability to save map data for offline access.

If you use Google Maps on a Wi-Fi only iPad, or if you’ll be traveling somewhere where cellular data is spotty, knowing how to enable offline caching of map data is pretty important. CNet explained the trick recently.
First, you’ll need to zoom in a bit; you can’t cache a widely-zoomed-out map view. Then, when you’re at the spot you’d like to cache, type OK maps into the search box, and then tap Search.
When you do that, a Google Maps icon will appear briefly, followed by a message indicating that your map data was saved. Now, even when you’r …

Source: Mac OSX Hints

Long ago, we detailed a (rather scary) way to delete files without needing a stop in the trash can. A recent thread on StackExchange brought the issue up again, and some folks there provided other, less scary approaches.

Why would you want to delete a file without needing to choose Empty Trash? Here’s one example: You have some files in the Trash on your Mac that you’re not ready to pull the trigger on forever. Now you connect a USB drive and have files on it that you wish to dispose of. If you drag those files to the Trash, you have to select Empty Trash to do it—which means deleting the files from both the drive and your Mac itself.

Most Hints readers know about the rm Terminal command, which lets you remove files instantly and without a trip to the Trash. Bu …

Source: Mac OSX Hints