Apple’s record financial quarter announced last week surprised many. With over 74 million phones sold, it is not only fanboys these days. Of course, with a record income of $74.6 billion and profits at $18 billion, some critics are already reciting the "Apple is doomed" mantra. The idea this time is sustainability. The only way now, is down.
there were update last week to iOS(8.1.3) and OS X (10.10.2) with a number of improvements and fixes. A Wi-Fi problem is still plaguing some users. There is also a new problem for me:inability to view HTML pages using Quick Look.
All MAC applications, including the Finder, have key commands: used as a quick way to operate actions found in menus. Leaning these key commands for specific applications is far more efficient than the slow(if easy to follow) menus
These are also key commands that can be used when starting a Mac (pressed right after the start-up tone) that are useful for repair and diagnostics. The newest was introduced with OS X 10.7 Lion, when recovery partition was included. Some earlier Macs may require an EFI BootROM update.
The Repair partition has a number of useful tools. Utilities;the ability to install a new version of OS X from the Mac App Store;and restoring from a time Machine backup. These are accessed by starting the Mac while holding down the Command + R keys
Another form of diagnosis is a check. This used to be on the install disks that came with earlier versions of OS X. Then and now, this testing is accessed by starting a computer while pressing the D key.
7. Another holdover from the days of the disk is the C-key start-up This was used to start up from a bootable disk. But I also use it to start from a thumb drive I have with OS X installed - useful for rescue. I expect this will be used when the new Disk Warriors on a USB drive arrives, developed because new Mac no longer have disk drives for those Macs with disk, starting up with the mouse (Or track pad) key pressed will eject a disk. That also works with an Eject key or F12.
As well as that thumb drive, I also have OS X installed on a couple of hard disks that connect to the Mac via USB. When I want to use one of these, I start the computer while holding down the Option key. That displays a screen with any bootable drive shown. I can select the one I want and the Mac starts up from that.
It I want to run a Mac from a second computer, I will start up in target mode. This uses the T-key. The master computer is connected using a Thunderbolt(or fire-wire) cable and the slave(the Target) can be controlled from there. This is useful not only for diagnostics and repair, but for transferring large amounts of data quickly.