Apps – Mac Utilities

Using Lion’s Recovery System

by on March 12, 2012

Lion Recovery Screen

New in Mac OS X Lion is The Recovery System.  What this does, is allows you to reinstall Mac OS X from your hard drive should you drive somehow get damaged or corrupted.  Using the Recovery System, you can also run disk repair on your hard disk.  In the past, you needed to start OS X from a boot disk if you wanted to run disk repair on your hard drive – no more.  Now, all you need to do is to run the  Recovery System utility as your machine is booting up.

To launch the Recovery System, hold down the Command and R keys as your system is restarting.  You will be presented with the “Mac OS X Utilities” window, which contains four options:

  1. Restore from Time Machine Backup – replaces the contents of your hard drive with the last Time Machine Backup
  2. Reinstall Mac OS X – Installs OS X on your Mac
  3. Get Help Online – Brings you to Apple’s support page.
  4. Disk Utility – launches the Disk Utility application

You can also access the Recovery System by pressing the Option key during system startup.

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GrowlVoice – a Handy Google Voice Utility for the Mac

by on March 2, 2012

GrowlVoice Inbox

I am a heavy user of Google Voice and recently discovered a handy little Mac utility that has made my life a whole lot easier:  GrowlVoice.

GrowlVoice is a menubar application that links to your Google Voice account and notifies when you receive a new text message, a voice mail (you can listen to voicemails as well as read their transcripts) and missed calls.  But moreover, it allows you to respond directly and quickly from your computer.  I personally find it easier to type out text messages on a full sized keyboard rather than on my iPhone’s tiny keyboard so if you spend a lot of time at your computer, you might find this utility especially handy.

GrowlVoice Message Threading

When a message comes in, you simply click on the notification and type in your reply.  The message is sent in seconds.  The application also organizes all text messages as threaded conversations, making it easy to find and reply to messages quickly.

The notification feature is excellent as well – you are notified immediately when a text message, missed call or voice mail is received.  GrowlVoice can notify you either through Growl or through basic notifications.

GrowlVoice has a quite extensive Preferences pane with many different options that you can set:  notification behavior, notification options, messaging/conversation options, which Google Voice phone to use, which sounds to use, which contacts (Mac Address Book or Google Contacts) to use, as well as several shortcuts you can establish.  I was actually quite surprised at how much you can customize GrowlVoice.

GrowlVoice Preferences Pane

Now while you can initiate calls from GrowlVoice, you cannot actually make phone calls from your computer – the call is made from a phone that you have specified in Google Voice.  For example, to make a call, click the phone button from the GrowlVoice window, type in the number you want to call and then click the call button.  Your designated phone will ring and as soon as you answer, the phone will then complete the call.

Making a call with GrowlVoice

So if you are a Google Voice user and spend a lot of time at your computer, you may wish to check out GrowlVoice.  This has turned into one of my “most used” apps.

You can purchase GrowlVoice for $4.99 at the App Store

 

 

 

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How to Erase Free Space on Your Hard Drive

by on February 3, 2012

Erase Free Space

If you work with highly confidential data, you should know that when you delete a file, it can be restored by certain utilities.  Thus, you will want to make sure that when you delete a file, it is gone for good.  This is especially the case if you sell your computer to a third party.

One way is to use the Erase Free Space feature in Disk Utility.  There are three options:  Zero Out, 3-Pass or 7-Pass.  Most often, Zero Out (the default) should be sufficient. 3-Pass will do as the name suggests – go through your drive 3 times.  Use 7-Pass if you are really paranoid.  But be prepared – it will take quite a bit longer than Zero Out or 3-Pass.

To move through the three options, drag the slider bar through the three levels.

To Erase the Free Space on your Hard Drive:

1.  Select Go > Utilities from the Finder Menu
2.  Double-click “Disk Utility”
3.  Choose the drive you want to erase in the left pane
4.  Click the Erase tab on top of the window

Free space1

5. Click the Erase Free Space button
6. To choose Zero Out, ensure that slider is in the leftmost position.
7.  To choose 3-Pass, drag the slider to the center of the slider bar.

3 pass

8.  To choose 7-Pass, drag the slider to the far right of the slider bar.
9.  Click “Erase Free Space”

 

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