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How-To: Automatically show the desktop bar by using Hot Corners to invoke Mission Control [Video]

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Mission Control Hot Corners

When you invoke Mission Control on OS X El Capitan using the typical gesture on your Mac’s trackpad or via a keyboard shortcut, you’ve probably noticed that the desktop bar at the top of the interface appears minimized. Although this yields additional real estate for the app windows below the desktop bar, it means that you no longer get to see the handy thumbnails that represent each desktop without moving your mouse to the desktop bar area.

There are some workarounds to defeating this OS X El Capitan change, including an open source utility called Force Full Desktop Bar. But for those of you who don’t wish to go through the trouble of installing a separate utility, which also requires you to disable El Capitan’s System Integrity Protection, try this handy Hot Corner shortcut instead.
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Many Mac users unable to log in to iMessage & FaceTime after updating to OS X 10.11.4

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apple-macbook

Apple earlier this week released the public stable version of OS X 10.11.4, but for a number of users the update process has been less than pleasant. A plethora of users are voicing issues on Apple’s support forums centered around logging in to iMessage and FaceTime following the update to OS X 10.11.4 El Capitan.


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Apple releases OS X 10.11.4 public beta 3, updated developer build

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OS X 10.11.4 El Capitan Live Photos

Apple has released the third OS X 10.11.4 public beta for non-developer testers. Public beta testers running the El Capitan pre-release can find the new software update through the Mac App Store. The latest public beta update follows the third developer beta of the same update earlier this week. Apple has also released a second OS X 10.11.4 beta 3 build (15E39c to 15E39d) for developers as well.


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Apple releases second OS X 10.11.4 beta with Live Photos in Messages, secure Notes, more

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OS X 10.11.4 El Capitan Live Photos

The second OS X 10.11.4 beta preview is now available via the Mac App Store for testing. The first version of this El Capitan beta added new features including Live Photo viewing and sharing through iMessage using the Messages app as well as secure password support for individual notes in the Notes app. We’ll check out the latest beta version of the upcoming release and highlight any changes below.


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OS X 10.11.3 hits the Mac App Store for all users

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MacBook OS X El Capitan

Heads up to all El Capitan users: OS X 10.11.3 is now available through the Mac App Store. Apple released the first developer beta version of the software update in mid-December after shipping OS X 10.11.2 earlier in the month. The second OS X 10.11.3 beta followed at the start of January. Apple has since started testing OS X 10.11.4.


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PSA: Apple hasn’t fixed the Gatekeeper vulnerability, only blocked specific apps using it

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gatekeeper

The security researcher who identified a serious flaw in Apple’s Gatekeeper reports that the vulnerability remains despite two security patches applied by the company. Each, he says, only blocks the specific apps he used to demonstrate the method.

Gatekeeper in theory allows users to ensure that their Mac will only run apps downloaded from the Mac App Store – or alternatively, signed by a known developer if you opt for a lower level of protection. But Patrick Wardle last September found a major vulnerability in this protection which would allow any malicious app to be run no matter what Gatekeeper setting was chosen.

Wardle informed Apple, which issued a security patch in response, but Wardle has now reverse-engineered the patch and found that it provides only extremely limited protection …


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OS X 10.11.4 public beta with Live Photos in Messages, secure Notes, and more is now available

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Live Photos Mac

Public beta testers can now try the new OS X 10.11.4 prerelease that first hit developers earlier this week. New features include Live Photo viewing and sharing in Messages, secure password protection for individual notes in Apple’s Notes app, and other improvements. Check out our full coverage of OS X 10.11.4 and other betas released earlier this week below:


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OS X 10.11.4 beta adds support for viewing and sharing Live Photos in Messages

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OS X 10.11.4 El Capitan Live Photos

Sharing and viewing Live Photos shot on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus on the Mac has been tricky if not impossible until now. Previously the enhanced photos could only be viewed in Apple’s Photos app on the Mac, which limited sharing to iCloud Photo Sharing. Starting with the new OS X 10.11.4 beta released earlier this week, Live Photos can now be shared and viewed over iMessage using Messages on the Mac for the first time.


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OS X El Capitan 10.11.2 beta 5 now available on the Mac App Store

MacBook OS X El Capitan

If you’re running the latest OS X El Capitan Update Beta on your Mac, head over to the Mac App Store to grab today’s Update Beta 5 release. OS X 10.11.2 is currently being developed alongside iOS 9.2 for iPhone and iPad as well as tvOS 9.1 for the new Apple TV. If you’re already running the OS X 10.11.2 beta, launch the Mac App Store and open the Updates tab to download and install the new release, then restart your Mac. The update is available for both developers and public beta testers.
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Skype for Mac now supports Split View on OS X El Capitan

Skype for El Capitan

Just in time for Apple’s official release of OS X El Capitan, Microsoft is out with a new version of Skype with features only available on the new operating system. Available in Skype 7.13 for Mac, the messaging and video chatting app now supports Apple’s new Split View feature for running Skype side-by-side with another full screen app. 
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Apple releases OS X El Capitan, featuring full-screen Split View, new Notes, revamped Spotlight Search, Safari 9 and more

Screen Shot 2015-09-30 at 12.24.07

Apple has officially released OS X El Capitan for the Mac, adding some new improvements as well as bringing parity with changes in iOS 9, released two weeks ago. OS X El Capitan (version 10.11), can be installed on any Mac that runs OS X Yosemite: simply download the free update from the Mac App Store. The release does not feature anything radically new — like the major visual overhaul that came last year — but there are new features as well as a strong focus on overall performance and stability improvements.

Here’s what’s new in Apple’s latest version of the Mac operating system …


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Popular Reeder 3 RSS client hits the Mac App Store with redesigned themes + OS X El Capitan features

Reeder 3

Timed cleverly with the launch of OS X El Capitan, the popular RSS client Reeder is officially out with version 3.0 today with full support for OS X 10.11. As we first saw in Reeder 3’s public beta, the latest version of the feed reader includes a selection of Yosemite and El Capitan style themes with translucency and modern design.

OS X El Capitan users will benefit from new features including using Reeder in split-screen mode next to other supported full-screen apps. The new version also supports Apple’s new system font, San Francisco, plus a lot of customization options to make the reading environment best fit your needs. Check out the full release notes below:

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Fantastical 2.1 for Mac now includes OS X El Capitan’s split-screen feature + much more

Fantastical 2.1 for Mac

Fantastical 2.0 notably upgraded the smart calendar menu bar utility to a full-sized calendar app in March. Following that massive release, Flexibits is back today with the first big update that builds on that it.

Fantastical 2.1 for Mac adds full El Capitan support ahead of OS X 10.11’s release next week (which should be welcome news to El Capitan public beta and developer testers now). In addition to general stability that you would expect, OS X 10.11 support includes El Capitan’s new split-screen feature for viewing and resizing two full-screen apps side-by-side.

Fantastical’s developers say the new release also fulfills the vast majority of feature requests after version 2.0 that users have requested. The result is more refined Fantastical 2 for Mac with an extensive change log that likely includes something for everyone:
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AirServer adds live streaming from iOS apps to YouTube, higher quality mirroring w/ iOS 9’s rewritten AirPlay

airserver-ios-9

With the launch of YouTube Gaming earlier this year, Google’s Twitch competitor that lets users live stream and watch gameplay videos on YouTube, users can now live stream and browse gameplay videos on YouTube from dedicated apps. Google first enabled live streaming the desktop, and today announced plans for Android, but an update to the popular AirServer app is taking advantage of the lack of iOS streaming support by enabling users to live stream directly to YouTube from their iOS devices.

Google does have a YouTube Gaming app or iOS, but it currently only acts as a community-style app for letting users access live streams and recorded gameplay videos from their iPhone or iPad. AirServer, however, tells us it collaborated with YouTube to enable streaming from iOS apps using its mirroring technology:
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Apple planning to bring 4K screen to 21.5-inch iMac in October

Screenshot 2015-09-03 13.09.42

Apple is indeed planning to release a new version of its 21.5-inch iMac with a 4K display this fall, according to reliable sources. The current plan is to announce the refreshed version of the smaller iMac by the end of October alongside OS X El Capitan and begin shipping the product by the beginning of November. As indicated by references inside of El Capitan, the new 21.5 inch iMac’s 4K display will come with a resolution of 4096 x 2304, which is up from the current model’s screen resolution of 1920 x 1080. Faster processors and improved color saturation can also be expected. The higher-resolution screen will likely raise the price of the new iMac, much like the 5K display raised the price of the 27-inch iMac last fall. Apple may keep around the current 1080P models, much like the lower-resolution 27-inch iMac is still available for sale.


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