Tuesday, 01 May 2018 08:02
Overloaded by Work Email? Give the Slack Messaging Tool a Try.
Written by Adam Engst
Don’t get us wrong—email is great. But sometimes there’s too much of it at work, as colleagues share information too broadly or chime in unnecessarily, and as marketing offers and other junk fills your inbox. Over the past few years, lots of organizations—including small and large firms, non-profits, academic departments, student project teams, and government [R30;]
Tuesday, 01 May 2018 08:01
Taking Out the Garbage: Tips for Working with the Trash on the Mac
Written by Adam Engst
One of the great innovations of the Mac, way back when, was the concept of the Trash. Instead of deleting files immediately, you’d put them in the Trash, where they’d sit until you either took them out or removed them for good by emptying the Trash. You undoubtedly know the basics of working with the [R30;]
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Wednesday, 04 April 2018 17:44
Use an external graphics processor with your Mac
Written by MBS Web TeamYour Thunderbolt 3-equipped Mac running macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 can access additional graphics performance by connecting to an external graphics processor (also known as an eGPU).
Monday, 02 April 2018 13:08
Solving the Mystery of Missing Messages Notifications
Written by Adam Engst
A client got in touch recently with a maddening problem. When he received texts on his iPhone, Messages displayed notifications for messages from everyone…except his wife! Needless to say, this was a problem. Since notifications appeared correctly for other people, it wasn’t related to overall settings. It turned out that he—or someone else, or iOS [R30;]
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Monday, 02 April 2018 13:07
Use Modifier Keys to Do More—a Lot More—with Mouse Drags
Written by Adam Engst
Dragging files and folders around is core to the Mac experience—drag a file from one folder to another to move it, drag a folder from one drive to another to copy it. But did you know that if you hold down the Option key while dragging a file in the Finder, you’ll get a green [R30;]
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Monday, 02 April 2018 13:06
There’s a Hidden Keyboard Shortcut Cheat Sheet in Your iPad
Written by Adam Engst
If you’re working on an iPad with a physical keyboard—either a Bluetooth keyboard or an iPad Pro with Apple’s Smart Keyboard—there are quite a few keyboard shortcuts you can use to work faster. Many are what you’d guess if you have Mac experience; for instance, Command-F generally maps to Find. But to see a list [R30;]
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Monday, 02 April 2018 13:05
Wondering Where Your Past Events in the iOS Calendar App Have Gone?
Written by Adam Engst
When it comes to calendars, we’re mostly concerned with the future. But sometimes you want to travel back in time too, to see when you had that doctor appointment or last went to the gym. If you scroll back in the Calendar app in iOS, you might discover, to your consternation, that after 2 weeks [R30;]
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Monday, 02 April 2018 13:04
iOS 11.3 Introduces New Battery Health Feature, Business Chat, and More
Written by Adam Engst
At the end of March, Apple released updates to all four of its operating systems, but iOS 11.3 was the most notable. It boasts a variety of new features and other changes—you can think of it as the midpoint update between iOS 11’s first release and iOS 12, probably coming next September. All remaining updates [R30;]
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Monday, 02 April 2018 13:03
Here’s How to Lock Down Your Facebook Privacy Settings—to the Extent Possible
Written by Adam Engst
Facebook has dominated the news headlines of late, but not for good reasons. There were the 50 million Facebook profiles gathered for Cambridge Analytica and used in the 2016 presidential election. Facebook has long been scraping call and text message data from Android phones. And within the Facebook iOS app, the company pushes the Onavo [R30;]
Monday, 02 April 2018 13:02
Apple Pay Is Faster, Easier, More Secure, and More Private Than Using Credit Cards
Written by Adam Engst
You’ve probably heard of Apple Pay, but have you set it up so you can use it to pay for purchases at checkout? If not, give it a try, since it’s one of those living-in-the future Apple technologies that feels like science fiction every time you use it. Simply put your iPhone, iPad, or Apple [R30;]
Wednesday, 28 March 2018 06:23
Apple Introduces New iPad with Apple Pencil Support, Updates iWork
Written by Adam Engst
At a special education event on March 27th, Apple introduced a new 9.7-inch iPad that offers faster performance, support for the Apple Pencil, and a few new camera-related features. The company also released new versions of the iWork apps—Pages, Numbers, and Keynote—that let users draw, sketch, and write with the Apple Pencil. Sixth-generation iPad For [R30;]
Thursday, 01 March 2018 10:07
View Notes in Their Own Windows, and Float Them Over Everything Else
Written by Adam Engst
Here’s one for those who use Apple’s Notes app for storing bits of information. By default, Notes in macOS gives you a single window, with each note listed in a sidebar. But what if you want to see two notes at once? Or keep one always available no matter what else you’re doing? Select the [R30;]
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If you’re reading this, chances are good that you’re not in elementary school, but it’s still easy to end up with a bunch of numbers you need to calculate. Perhaps you’re trying to total receipts for an expense report, average your kid’s report card grades, or split a restaurant bill. Either way, instead of launching [R30;]
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Thursday, 01 March 2018 10:05
Did You Know You Can Put Shadows on Text You Type on the Mac?
Written by Adam Engst
Snazzy shadowed text probably isn’t appropriate for your company’s annual report, but if you’re whipping up a flyer for a birthday party, you might want to jazz up the text. You can do that in most Mac apps that support macOS’s system-level Fonts palette. Select your text, and then bring up the Fonts palette. Generally [R30;]
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Thursday, 01 March 2018 10:04
10 Things You Need to Know about Apple’s New HomePod Speaker
Written by Adam Engst
After months of anticipation, Apple’s new HomePod smart speaker finally shipped in mid-February. Reviews of its audio quality have been positive, and for the most part, it works both as advertised and as you’d expect. However, there were some surprises, most good but some bad. Whether you have a HomePod on your credenza (which may [R30;]
Thursday, 01 March 2018 10:03
Block Telemarketing Calls Automatically on Your iPhone
Written by Adam Engst
Junk calls are one of the great annoyances of the modern world. You’re minding your own business when your iPhone vibrates in your pocket. You pull it out, curious as to who’s calling, but don’t recognize the number. You may notice that it’s in the same exchange as your phone number, suggesting that it’s a [R30;]
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Thursday, 01 March 2018 10:02
Apple’s Family Sharing Simplifies Sharing Purchases and Managing Kid Capabilities
Written by Adam Engst
Family life is all about togetherness, but keeping track of who’s doing what when can be tough. Apple’s Family Sharing service makes it easy to share apps, media, and more within a family of up to six members, and it provides a few helpful digital housekeeping capabilities, such as locating your kid’s misplaced iPad. Here’s [R30;]
Thursday, 01 March 2018 10:01
Apple’s Mac Reminders App Is More Capable Than You May Realize
Written by Adam Engst
With Apple’s productivity apps like Calendar, Contacts, Notes, and Reminders, which look and work pretty much the same on the Mac and in iOS, what you see is largely what you get. Particularly in iOS, they tend not to have much in the way of hidden depths. With Reminders, however, Apple’s engineers snuck some surprising [R30;]
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Thursday, 01 February 2018 07:08
Swipe Back and Forth between Web Pages for Easier Navigation
Written by Adam Engst
For navigation, every Web browser offers back and forward buttons, generally represented by arrows in the upper left of the toolbar. You can also navigate by choosing menu commands and typing keyboard shortcuts—did you know that Command-Left arrow and Command-Right arrow work too? But if you’re using a Mac with a trackpad, you can move [R30;]
Thursday, 01 February 2018 07:07
Trading Faces: Picking a Better Face for People Photos Recognizes
Written by Adam Engst
Apple’s Photos app is remarkably good at identifying people in your snapshots and collecting all the pictures that contain a particular person into a group in its People view. At its top level, the People view shows a thumbnail photo for each person, picking one automatically from all the available photos. Needless to say, it [R30;]
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Thursday, 01 February 2018 07:06
Create and Name Reminders Lists to Use Them Via Siri
Written by Adam Engst
Do you create reminders with Siri on the iPhone? Those reminders are automatically added to your default list, which you set in Settings > Reminders > Default List. That’s great generally—“Hey Siri, remind me to update watchOS tonight at 11 PM”—but less good when you want to maintain different shopping lists. For instance, create a [R30;]
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Thursday, 01 February 2018 07:05
Find the Battery Percentage Indicator on the iPhone X
Written by Adam Engst
Wondering what happened to the numeric battery percentage indicator on the iPhone X? The notch takes up enough space at the top of the screen that there was room only for the battery icon, which can be hard to interpret. If you want to see precisely what percentage of your battery is left, swipe down [R30;]
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