Mac Hacks

Chapter 3. Customize Your OS X Experience

Your experience when you’re using your Mac is what makes the experience worthwhile. But if you’re constantly being bombarded by stuff like Flash-based video ads for autopsy TV shows (ugh), your experience is hampered. If you can blog more effectively, your experience is enhanced. Why not take a few minutes and make your experience the most it can be while sitting in front of your Mac? After all, a more comfortable you is probably a happier, more productive version of you.

Hack 13. Tame Your Browsers

Get more out of your day-to-day browsing by controlling Flash, re-enabling RSS, and accessing your bookmarks from anywhere.

Since there are tons of extensions available for the three big browsers—Safari, Chrome, and Firefox—we could write an entire book just about extensions and probably still not make a dent. Instead, I’d rather focus on adding some things the browser makers left out, as well as tweaking some of the little things that can make a big difference in your browsing workflow, starting with Flash.

The Road to Flash-less Happiness

Chances are, Safari has crashed on you more than once and your MacBook has gotten hot enough to cook dinner on it. I’ll bet good money that if you check your crash logs, Flash would often be the culprit.

Adobe’s multimedia player has become the bane of the Web’s existence, and Apple knows it: Apple banned Flash from the iPhone and iPad. In addition, Adobe recently gave up on developing Flash for ...