The Easiest and Best way to Sync your Google Calendar with iCal, for Free

Calendar Detail (Google) by Mess of PottagePhoto courtesy of Mess of Pottage

Google Calendar is one of the best calendaring solutions I’ve found simply because it handles three things – SMS alerts, its portable and it’s free. iCal is a great front-end calendar that many enjoy using although it has limitations. Sure, you can use Mobile Me, for a price. However, with Google Calendar as a back-end you can go anywhere and be alerted along the way for free.

So, how exactly do you connect your Google Calendar with iCal?

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What Does Resetting the Intel Mac’s System Management Controller (SMC) do?

Happy Mac by iSaniPhoto courtesy of iSani

Sometimes a Mac behaves erratically. When it refuses to turn on, wake up from sleep mode, doesn’t recognize the AC adapter, or doesn’t charge the battery it could be a hardware problem. Or it could be that the Mac’s power manager (The SMC) became corrupted and unusable. A quick fix to try before taking your MacBook/MacBook Pro into the Apple repair center is to reset the power manager. In this article, I’ll explain what the SMC does and how to reset it.

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Don’t Like iTunes? Here are Three Alternatives

Apple iTunesPhoto courtesy of Mac OS X

Its no secret that I don’t like iTunes. I’ve tried to like it over the past seven years but I just don’t. Perhaps its the fact that it uses up too many resources on an older computer. Maybe its the way it manages music or it’s interface. I know that the lack of support for Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, and other formats bothers me.

What about you? Do you want something better than iTunes? What else is there for Mac users who don’t like iTunes? Luckily, there are alternatives. Here’s three of the best:

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Dealing Without FireWire in The New MacBooks

Sad Hydrant 2 by BitpicturePhoto courtesy of Bitpicture

Now that the new MacBooks have been released, we can enjoy the onboard Nvidia graphics chips, the buttonless multi-touch glass trackpad, the sweet new backlit displays, the unibody “brick” construction, and the lack of FireWire.

Wait, what was that? No FireWire in the new MacBooks?

That’s right. If you want FireWire (800) you need a MacBook Pro (or an iMac). So, instead of complaining and ranting because we all know Steve Jobs could care less, let’s suck it up and figure out what we can do about it.

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Decoding OS X’s startup error signals – What do they mean?

untitled by SaschapohfleppPhoto courtesy of Saschapohflepp

Ever have your iMac display a gray screen with a flashing question mark? How about the universal no sign? What about the time it started beeping and wouldn’t start up. Macs aren’t perfect. Sometimes things go wrong and they break. Whether its something you did or not, things happen. To figure out what is wrong, you have to decode these error messages. Here’s what they mean and what to do about them:

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