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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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Does it seem like that red badge on the Settings app indicating that there’s a new iOS 13 or iPadOS 13 update pops up at least once per week? You’re not imagining things—Apple has been frantically squashing bugs in its mobile operating systems since their release in mid-September. If you haven’t yet upgraded from iOS […]
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Monday, 02 December 2019 09:03
Need to Move Lots of Data Between Macs? Try Target Disk Mode
Written by Adam Engst
We have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to the number of ways we can move data between Macs. You can send files via AirDrop, attach them to an email message, put them in a Messages conversation, turn on and connect via File Sharing, or use Dropbox or Google Drive as an intermediary, to […]
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Monday, 02 December 2019 09:02
In Case of Emergency, Create an iPhone Medical ID
Written by Adam Engst
Accidents, particularly those involving automobiles, are all too common, and while no one plans to be in one, you can prepare for the eventuality. If you end up in a state where you can’t speak with emergency responders or are too shaken up to share your details clearly, your iPhone can provide them with essential […]
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Monday, 02 December 2019 09:01
Apple Releases Redesigned Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR
Written by Adam Engst
We’re not going to beat around the bush. Apple’s new Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR redefine what “pro” means. If you aren’t certain that the fastest and most powerful Mac and an expertly calibrated 6K Retina display will enable you to make more money immediately, they’re probably not for you. You should also be […]
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Thursday, 14 November 2019 03:38
New 16-inch MacBook Pro Sports a Redesigned Scissor-Switch Keyboard
Written by Adam Engst
Responding to customer complaints and media mocking, Apple has introduced a new 16-inch MacBook Pro that features improves on its predecessor in several ways, most notably with a scissor-switch keyboard in place of the flaky butterfly-key keyboard. The 16-inch MacBook Pro replaces the previous 15-inch MacBook Pro at the top of Apple’s notebook line and […]
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Friday, 01 November 2019 09:09
Be Careful in iOS 13’s Mail App—the Trash Button Is Where Reply Used to Be!
Written by Adam Engst
For unknown reasons, Apple redesigned the toolbar in the iOS 13 version of Mail. Such things happen, but this time, Apple made a big mistake and moved Mail’s Trash button to where its Reply button used to be. Lots of people who have become accustomed to tapping Reply are now finding themselves deleting messages inadvertently, […]
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Friday, 01 November 2019 09:08
Consider USB Peripherals When Troubleshooting Mac Problems
Written by Adam Engst
If you’re experiencing a sporadic problem with your Mac, the sort of thing that happens often enough to be annoying but not so frequently as to be reproducible, allow us to suggest one little-known troubleshooting tip. Malfunctioning USB devices—keyboards, mice, hubs, printers, etc.—can sometimes cause truly inscrutable problems ranging from startup issues to kernel panics. […]
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Friday, 01 November 2019 09:07
Use the Driving ETA Feature in iOS 13’s Maps App to Share Your Arrival Time
Written by Adam Engst
A small but welcome new feature of iOS 13 is Driving ETA, which helps you share your estimated time of arrival with a contact whenever you’re navigating with the Maps app. To use Driving ETA, start navigating to a destination in Maps, tap Share ETA at the bottom of the screen, and pick the person […]
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Friday, 01 November 2019 09:06
Need to Charge Your iPhone or iPad More Quickly? Get a Higher Wattage Power Adapter
Written by Adam Engst
By default, most iPhones and iPads ship with Apple’s tiny 5-watt power adapters. They work, but not quickly. However, the iPhone 8 and later, all models of the iPad Pro, and the most recent iPad Air and iPad mini models support fast charging when connected to higher wattage power adapters. You may have an older […]
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Friday, 01 November 2019 09:05
Apple’s New AirPods Pro Offer Active Noise Cancellation and Better Fit
Written by Adam Engst
Are you a fan of Apple’s AirPods, or have you had trouble with them staying in your ears? Either way, you might like the just-released AirPods Pro, which offer a new design with three sizes of soft, flexible, silicone ear tips and welcome new capabilities. The ear tips should make the AirPods Pro fit better […]
Friday, 01 November 2019 09:04
You Can Now Access Flash Drives on an iPhone or iPad—Here’s How
Written by Adam Engst
An unexpected and useful feature of iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 is also nearly invisible, and for most uses, requires a special adapter. With this feature, the Files app now can “see” external storage devices. That’s huge—now you can move data to and from an iPhone or iPad using standard flash drives, SD card readers, […]