OS X Daily: “Mac Apps Not Remembering Passwords? Fix Quickly By Repairing Keychain Access” plus 3 more

Mac Apps Not Remembering Passwords? Fix Quickly By Repairing Keychain Access
Diablo 3 Release Date Set for May 15
iPad 3 Reviews Roundup
How to Remotely Sleep a Mac from Anywhere with SSH or an iPhone

Mac Apps Not Remembering Passwords? Fix Quickly By Repairing Keychain Access

Posted: 15 Mar 2012 10:47 AM PDT

Repair Keychain Access to resolve apps forgetting passwords and login data

Is Safari no longer remembering logins and passwords? Is Mail.app asking for a password every time you launch the app and try to check or send mail, despite the fact that you’ve entered login credentials over and over? When a Mac app no longer remembers password and login data, it’s often the result of corrupted keychain files. This is easy to fix in three easy steps with Keychain Access first aid.

Use Spotlight by hitting Command+Spacebar and then type “Keychain Access” and hit return
Open the “Keychain Access” menu and choose “Keychain First Aid”
Enter the users password and check the “Repair” box, then click “Start”

After keychain repairs are completed, exit out of Keychain Access and return to the application that wasn’t remembering the login and password information. You may be asked one more time for the login, but from this point on it should remember it.

You can use the same fix when a Mac won’t remember wi-fi passwords, though forgetting networks is resolved through Repairing Permissions instead.

This process will be the same for Mac OS X 10.6, OS X 10.7, and OS X 10.8. You are welcome to verify the keychain configuration before repairing it, but there’s little reason to not jump straight to the repair process.

Diablo 3 Release Date Set for May 15

Posted: 15 Mar 2012 10:30 AM PDT

Diablo 3 Screen Shot

Gamers rejoice! Diablo 3, the highly anticipated action role-playing game, will be released on May 15 for both Mac and PC. Blizzard Entertainment has had the game in development seemingly forever (2001!), but it appears the long wait has been worth it. Gameplay is a mixture of dungeon crawling and hack-and-slash with RPG elements, there are five different character classes each with their own skillset, and there’s also a multiplayer PvP mode.

Diablo 3 Release Date

The expectations for Diablo 3 are quite high, but looking at gameplay videos and screen shots don’t disappoint with it’s gorgeous graphics and action packed style. This could easily wind up being the best major game release for the Mac platform this year, and gamers of all types should be anxiously awaiting it’s release.

Diablo III Screen Shot

Blizzard has a great record of releasing games simultaneously for both Mac OS X and Windows platforms, making it one of a few larger game companies to prioritize the Mac as an initial release platform.

Diablo 3 will cost $59.99 and can be pre-ordered and even pre-downloaded directly from Blizzard via BattleNet.

iPad 3 Reviews Roundup

Posted: 15 Mar 2012 01:22 AM PDT

New iPad 3 Reviews Roundup

Early reviews of the new third generation iPad are starting to appear and they’re all pretty much glowing. Whether you’re still trying to figure out which model to get and where to buy one or you just want to pass the time until the FedEx truck arrives this Friday, take a peak at a handful of reviews below.

TheVerge:

Let’s be clear: the new iPad is in a class by itself, just as its predecessor was. As the latest product in a lineage of devices that defined this category, the iPad continues to stand head and shoulders above the competition. With the addition of the Retina display, LTE, more memory, and a more powerful CPU, Apple has absolutely held onto the iPad’s market position as the dominant player and product to beat.

…The new iPad is the most functional, usable, and beautiful tablet that any company has ever produced.

TechCrunch loves it:

If you're at all interested in LTE in an Apple product, obviously, get a new iPad. If you read a lot on your iPad, get the new iPad. If you take a lot of photos and videos (yeah you, the joker in the front row of the concert with your iPad in the air), get the new iPad. If you play a lot of games on the iPad, get the new iPad.

If you don't yet have an iPad, get the new iPad.

Telegraph loves the screen and proclaims it the best tablet on the market:

If you have been holding off getting a tablet then this is the one to go for. In my view, it’s the best that money can buy. Existing iPad owners who are thinking of upgrading should take a look at this new device. You’ll see the difference very, very clearly indeed.

DaringFireball:

The retina display is amazing, everything in the UI feels faster, and the price points remain the same. What's not to love? It's that simple.

New York Times provides the most critical review, though it’s still overall positive:

The new iPad doesn't introduce anything that we haven't seen before, either in the iPhone or in rival tablets. There's no Steve Jobs "one more thing" moment here; Apple just took its white-hot iPad and added the latest screen, battery and cellular technologies.

MacWorld suggests users of the iPad 2 will be fine without upgrading, as long as they don’t see the new Retina screen:

The new iPad is just that: The iPad, updated for a new year and millions of new iPad users. It’s not smaller or lighter, but it’s got a remarkable screen, a much better rear camera, and support for cellular networking that can run at Wi-Fi speeds. It’s the iPad that millions of people have embraced, only one year better.

Users of the iPad 2 shouldn’t fret: Their iPad investment is certainly good for another year. But they might not want to look too closely at the new iPad’s screen. Once you get a load of that Retina display, it’s hard to go back to anything else.

How to Remotely Sleep a Mac from Anywhere with SSH or an iPhone

Posted: 14 Mar 2012 02:33 PM PDT

Remotely Sleep a Mac

Ever been away from your Mac and wished you could put it to sleep remotely? Maybe you accidentally left a Mac on at home or at work, or maybe you just left a Mac running so a download could complete. You don’t have to leave it running while you’re gone though, here are two different ways you can remotely sleep a Mac. The first method uses SSH and thus requires Terminal access, and the other uses just email which allows you to sleep a Mac with an iPhone or iPad just by sending a message from a verified email address.

Remotely Sleep a Mac with SSH

The first method assumes knowledge of SSH and the Terminal and is more advanced than the email method mentioned below. You will need to enable SSH server on the target Mac beforehand for this to work, this can be done quickly through System Preferences > Network > Enable Remote Login. Make note of the Macs IP address too, that is what you’ll connect to it with.

Use Terminal and SSH to the target Mac, be sure to specify the appropriate user name and IP address:

ssh username@127.0.0.1

Once logged in, type the following command:

osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to sleep'

There is no warning or hesitation, the target Mac immediately goes to sleep and the SSH connection will die as a result. The main downside to this method is you’ll need access to an SSH client to activate the sleep method, these are widely available for Mac OS X (Terminal), Windows (PuTTY), and iOS (Prompt or MobileTerminal). If you don’t want to have to use SSH to sleep the Mac, you can also use put Macs to sleep remotely by sending an email, it takes a little bit more to set up though.

Remotely Sleep a Mac with an iPhone via eMail

This may be the best method because you can put the Mac to sleep anytime by shooting off an email from an iPhone (or iPad 3G/4G). You will need to always have Mail.app running on the target Mac for this to work:

Open AppleScript Editor (/Applications/Utilities/)
Create a new AppleScript containing the following exactly:

tell application "System Events" to sleep
Remote Sleep a Mac

Save the AppleScript as “sleepmac.scpt” and put it in your Documents folder
Open Mail app, pull down Mail menu, and select “Preferences”
Click on “Rules” and choose “Add Rule”
Name the description something like “Sleep Mac” and create new conditions with the following options:

if: ALL
From – Contains – (specify verified email address here)
Subject – Is equal to – “Sleep now”
Perform following actions: Run AppleScript – ~/Documents/sleepmac.scpt

Remote Sleep a Mac via Email

Click “OK” to add the new rule set and click “Apply” to apply the sleep ruleset to all inboxes

Verify everything is working by sending an email from the address you specified with the subject “Sleep now”, the Mac should sleep immediately. If it doesn’t work, verify the AppleScript was set up properly, and that the Rule set is configured properly and for the recipient inbox that Mail.app is configured for. With the ruleset shown in the screenshot above, any email sent from mac@osxdaily.com with the subject “Sleep now” will sleep the target Mac immediately.

Both SSH and sleep through Mail have been tested to work on Macs running OS X 10.7 Lion and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, though there is no technical limitation and they should function identically in earlier versions of Mac OS X as well.