Apple Otaku

Whenever I get a new Mac, there are always a few things I like to do before installing my general set of applications and getting down to work. Depending on your own personal preferences, all eight tips might not apply to you. But I think the fundamental nature of these tips will help out most individuals.

1. Set a Brightness level - It’s nice to have a display whose properties are consistent. It’s a good idea to pick a brightness level for your display and stick to it. That way, your operating system and pictures have some level of consistency. I’ll also go into the energy saver settings in system preferences and under the options section for battery uncheck “slightly dim display when using this power source.” By doing this, your backlight settings will be the same even when you’re running on battery power. Unless you’re interested in squeezing out as much battery life out of your notebook as possible, leave this checked-off. Also under energy saver, I like to uncheck “automatically reduce the brightness of the display before display sleep.” Having that feature on annoys me to no end.
2. Calibrate your Screen - if you want a more pleasing and accurate display you need to calibrate it. Nowadays, you can purchase hardware display calibrators for less than 100 dollars. Check out my Amazon aStore for deals on calibrators. If you’re not willing to spend that much, you can calibrate your display manually. Go into the displays section of system preferences and under the color section, there is a calibrate button. Click it and follow the directions. It won’t be as accurate as a hardware calibrator, but it will get you into the general ballpark.
3. Keyboard Settings - Go into the keyboard and mouse section of system preferences. Under the keyboard section is a checkbox called “use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys.” Activate this setting. Without this setting enabled, you can accidentally change your backlight and volume settings in the normal course of typing on the keyboard. Now when you want access to these settings, you also need to hold down the FN key. Much better, I think.
4. Disable Automatic Login - In the security section of system preferences, go to the general section and turn on “disable automatic login.” Next time you boot in OS X, you will need to type in your user password in order to access the computer. Not a bullet proof method of security, but it does give some extra layer of protection without adding too much inconvenience towards the user.
5. Setup an Extra User Account - Under the accounts section of system preferences, setup up an extra account if you haven’t done so already. Should anything bad happen to your default user account that makes accessing it impossible, at least you now have another way of getting into your computer.
6. Turn on the Firewall - It’s generally a good idea to turn this on. Doing so will help protect your computer from incoming network attacks. You can find it in the security section of your System Preferences. Also consider installing Little Snitch so you can also protect your computer from outgoing network attacks.
7. Turn off Unneeded Services - While OS X has had a good track record in regards to security, it doesn’t make sense to have file sharing turned on if you’re never going use it. That’s another hole a hacker might be able to exploit. So go into the sharing section of system preferences and turn off anything you’re not using.
8. Install Quicksilver - Unless you absolutely hate using the keyboard, applications like Quicksilver will change the way you use your Mac. Fundamentally, these programs allow you to access programs and data files by typing in a few keystrokes. I used to use Launchbar, but decided to make the change to Quicksilver due to its very good extensibility. Try out one of these apps and watch your productivity skyrocket.

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