Monday, 02 March 2020 09:02
How to Choose Between iCloud Photos and My Photo Stream
Written by Adam Engst
For quite a few years, Apple enabled users to download their iPhone or iPad photos to their Macs with a service called My Photo Stream. It wasn’t perfect, but it was free, and it did a decent job of ensuring that photos you took on your iPhone or iPad would end up on your Mac. […]
Tagged under
By default, Apple gives every iCloud user 5 GB of storage space. That disappears quickly, given how it’s shared between iCloud Mail, iCloud Drive, iCloud Photos, Messages, and iCloud-enabled apps. Apple will, of course, sell you more iCloud space. $0.99 per month gets you 50 GB, $2.99 per month provides 200 GB, and for $9.99 […]
Power users like keyboard shortcuts because it’s faster to press a couple of keys than to navigate lengthy menus. If you have trouble remembering shortcuts, check out KeyCue, which displays a concise table of all currently available shortcuts. But what about menu items that lack shortcuts? Make your own in System Preferences > Keyboard > […]
Tagged under
Monday, 03 February 2020 08:07
Is Your iPhone Reporting “No Service” When You Know There’s a Signal?
Written by Adam Engst
Have you ever seen the dreaded “No Service” label at the top of your iPhone’s screen, even when you’re pretty sure there should be cellular reception? It’s not common, but the iPhone’s cellular radio can occasionally get confused. Luckily, you can easily fix the problem. Open Control Center (swipe down from the upper-right corner on […]
Tagged under
Monday, 03 February 2020 08:06
Make Your Mac More Useful by Managing Menu Bar Icons
Written by Adam Engst
If your Mac is anything like ours, it’s suffering from an infestation of menu bar icons. Sure, the Wi-Fi menu is essential, and many others can be helpful. But if you have too many, or they’re in random order, finding one when you need it can be frustrating. You can employ two techniques to increase […]
Tagged under
Monday, 03 February 2020 08:05
The Fastest Way to Change Wi-Fi Networks in iOS 13
Written by Adam Engst
Historically, picking a new Wi-Fi network has required you to open the Settings app and tap Wi-Fi, forcing you to unlock your iPhone or switch away from what you were doing. In iOS 13, however, Apple added a better way to connect to a new Wi-Fi network. Open Control Center (swipe down from the upper-right […]
Tagged under
For some Mac users, macOS 10.15 Catalina is no longer a choice. That’s because the new 16-inch MacBook Pro and the 2019 Mac Pro that Apple released late last year ship with Catalina installed and can’t run any previous version of macOS. But for most people, it’s time to consider an upgrade to Catalina. Most […]
Monday, 03 February 2020 08:03
To Prevent Spearfishing, Set a PIN or Passcode on Your Cell Phone Account
Written by Adam Engst
Spearfishing. It’s no longer just a tropical ocean sport that could provide seafood for dinner. In today’s tech world, spearfishing is when someone targets you specifically, usually with the goal of taking over your online accounts. Once that’s done, the attacker will try to siphon money from your bank account, impersonate you in an attempt […]
Monday, 03 February 2020 08:02
Here’s How to Mark Up Photos and Screenshots with Text and Graphics in iOS 13
Written by Adam Engst
Ever wanted to take a photo of a receipt and circle the item for which you should be reimbursed? Or perhaps you’d like to put some text or a speech balloon on a photo? You can do all that and much more using iOS 13’s Markup tools. They’re available when you take a screenshot, in […]
Monday, 03 February 2020 08:01
Learn How to Examine Your iPhone’s Battery Usage
Written by Adam Engst
A common question we hear is, “Why is my iPhone/iPad battery draining so fast?” Luckily, Apple provides tools that help you see exactly how your iPhone uses its battery over the last 24 hours and—with less detail—over each of the last 10 days. Plus, you can tweak settings that will improve battery life, both in […]
Thursday, 02 January 2020 11:08
Did You Know You Can Save and Share Voicemail Files from Your iPhone?
Written by Adam Engst
For many of us, voicemail replaced answering machines, so we don’t think of voicemail messages as being something we can save or share. But on the iPhone, every voicemail message is just an audio file. If you want to retain a message for posterity or share one with a friend or colleague, you can do […]
Tagged under
Thursday, 02 January 2020 11:07
Migrate to a New Mac Right Away, Rather Than Waiting
Written by Adam Engst
The next time you buy and set up a new Mac, make sure to migrate data and apps from your previous Mac to it right away during the initial setup. It can be tempting to see what it’s like to use it fresh from the factory or to delay migrating because doing so would force […]
Tagged under
Thursday, 02 January 2020 11:06
Use Your Apple Watch to Unlock Your Mac, and Apps in Catalina
Written by Adam Engst
If you’ve resisted requiring a password on your Mac after it wakes up or comes out of the screen saver because it’s too much work to enter repeatedly, an Apple Watch can make authentication much easier. In previous versions of macOS, just wearing an unlocked Apple Watch is enough to enter your Mac’s password; in […]
Tagged under
Thursday, 02 January 2020 11:05
AirDrop Reception Not Working? Here’s the Likely Fix
Written by Adam Engst
AirDrop has become a fast and reliable way to transfer data from one iPhone to another that’s nearby. Just tap the share icon and in iOS 13’s activity view, either tap an AirDrop shortcut in the top row or tap AirDrop in the second row and select choose a person or device in the subsequent […]
Tagged under
Thursday, 02 January 2020 11:04
Use Guided Access to Let Kids and Others Use Your iPhone Temporarily
Written by Adam Engst
Let’s get one thing straight. You know that you should never, ever share your iPhone or iPad passcode with anyone you don’t trust implicitly, like a spouse or adult child, right? That’s because, with your iOS passcode, someone could change your Apple ID password, and if you use iCloud for email, completely steal or otherwise […]
Email has been around for decades, but there are no hard-and-fast rules for how you should close a message with either the signoff or the signature block. If you’ve always wondered about the best ways to finish off a message or are uncomfortable with what you’ve been doing, here’s our advice. Use the form of […]
Tagged under
Thursday, 02 January 2020 11:02
Exercise (Some) Control over How Much Your Location Is Tracked
Written by Adam Engst
The New York Times recently published a bombshell article revealing just how completely our every movement is tracked by companies in the business of selling our locations to advertisers, marketers, and others. Anonymous sources provided the Times with a dataset from a single location-data company that contained 50 billion pings from the phones of more […]
Thursday, 02 January 2020 11:01
How to Find the Snaps You Want in the Mac’s Photos App
Written by Adam Engst
Digital cameras have been around long enough that people have stopped making snarky comments about how hard it is to find anything in a shoebox filled with hundreds of unorganized photos. But given the tens of thousands of photos many of us now have, it’s hard to be smug about the ease of finding any […]
Tagged under
Monday, 02 December 2019 09:08
Make Sure to Test Your Backup System with Occasional Restores
Written by Adam Engst
Did you know that the word for the irrational fear of Friday the 13th is paraskevidekatriaphobia? Neither did we, but what that supposedly unlucky day is good for—whenever it rolls around—is reminding us to test our backup systems. If something does go wrong, backups can save your bacon, but only if they’re actually working. So […]
Tagged under
Monday, 02 December 2019 09:07
The iPhone 11 Camera App’s Shutter Button Works Differently—Here’s How
Written by Adam Engst
With the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max, Apple changed the way the Camera app’s shutter button works in ways that could cause confusion. Tapping it once still takes a single still photo, but if you press and hold on the shutter button, it now captures a quick video. (Previously, pressing […]
Tagged under
Monday, 02 December 2019 09:06
Need to Import Photos from a non-iPhone or Want to Keep Images out of Photos?
Written by Adam Engst
Most Mac users rely on iPhones and iPads to take photos and store them in the Photos app, which happens automatically for those who use Apple’s iCloud Photos syncing service. But what if you want to import photos from a device other than an iPhone or iPad—say a Samsung smartphone running Android—and what if you […]
Tagged under
Monday, 02 December 2019 09:05
Did You Know You Can Drag the Scroll Bar in iOS 13?
Written by Adam Engst
In previous versions of iOS, a scroll bar would appear on the right edge of the screen while you were swiping through a long Web page, email message, or document. But the scroller was merely an indicator of where in the page you were and how much content there was (the bigger the scroller, the […]
Tagged under