tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3613098602846875972024-11-21T23:15:47.762-08:00Mac's notes from the tech bench. Everything Macintosh and then some!Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471800184425760795noreply@blogger.comBlogger108125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-361309860284687597.post-58998768982609360052018-06-18T15:59:00.002-07:002018-06-18T15:59:55.708-07:00

Attend any live theater presentation, and someone will ask the audience to silence their cell phones. But what about your Apple Watch? You don’t want it lighting up or making noise during the show either. To ensure that doesn’t happen, swipe up on the face to display Control Center, and then tap the theater masks icon to enable Theater mode (you may have to scroll down to see it). That

Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471800184425760795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-361309860284687597.post-9239524174918947232018-06-15T15:35:00.000-07:002018-06-15T15:35:01.647-07:00

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 Watch within an inch or so of a compatible payment terminal (look for an Apple Pay  or

Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471800184425760795noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-361309860284687597.post-24895861068162029562018-04-13T15:27:00.001-07:002018-04-13T15:27:09.975-07:00

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 to iOS 11 are likely to be minor maintenance updates. Here’s what’s new. iPhone

Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471800184425760795noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-361309860284687597.post-73861616326616991822018-04-12T17:38:00.000-07:002018-04-12T17:38:23.059-07:00

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 the Calculator app on your iPhone (it’s oddly missing from the iPad), get

Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471800184425760795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-361309860284687597.post-53804780567870524502018-04-11T12:33:00.000-07:002018-04-11T12:38:32.324-07:00

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 Protect VPN, an app made by a

Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471800184425760795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-361309860284687597.post-67844199832657324722018-03-22T14:48:00.000-07:002018-03-22T14:48:05.157-07:00

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 an overview of how Family Sharing can enhance your family’s

Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471800184425760795noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-361309860284687597.post-3178023091225414222018-03-16T16:09:00.002-07:002018-03-16T16:17:23.788-07:00

All iPhones pick up fingerprints, and it’s all too easy to get your iPhone dirty with ink, lotion, makeup, dirt, food, and oil. If you’re faced with an iPhone that needs cleaning, resist the urge to spray it with window cleaner, rubbing alcohol, or ammonia, or, even worse, to scrub it with baking soda or Borax.  That’s because all iPhones have oleophobic—oil repellent—coatings on

Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471800184425760795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-361309860284687597.post-84765988760694788972018-03-14T20:19:00.000-07:002018-03-14T20:28:22.199-07:00

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 neighbor. But no. When you answer, it’s “Heather,” a pre-recorded voice wanting to

Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471800184425760795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-361309860284687597.post-75399247260672575112018-03-11T12:03:00.001-07:002018-03-11T12:13:23.066-07:00

Apple gives iCloud users 5 GB of free storage, but that fills up fast with iCloud Photo Library, iOS backups, iBooks, and more. Until iOS 11 and macOS 10.13 High Sierra, each person in a family had to buy extra iCloud space separately. Happily, Apple has now made it so everyone in a Family Sharing group can share a single 200 GB ($2.99 per month) or 2 TB ($9.99 per month) plan.  The

Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471800184425760795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-361309860284687597.post-80290368208057131662018-03-06T15:49:00.001-08:002018-03-06T15:49:46.831-08:00

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 be a bad spot for it!) or you’re still deciding if you want

Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471800184425760795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-361309860284687597.post-20697439890188775652018-03-01T19:26:00.000-08:002018-03-01T19:27:07.716-08:00

File this warning under “unless it’s absolutely necessary.” If you use iCloud Photo Library on your Mac, don’t sign out from iCloud. Also, don’t deselect the iCloud Photo Library checkbox in either the Photos options of the iCloud pane of System Preferences or in the iCloud preferences in Photos itself. Why not? Because, when you re-enable iCloud or iCloud Photo Library, Photos will

Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471800184425760795noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-361309860284687597.post-77271472360105961092018-02-28T12:35:00.001-08:002018-02-28T12:35:21.241-08:00

When it comes to graphics on the Internet, it’s easy to feel as though you’re swimming for your life in a giant bowl of alphabet soup, surrounded by shouting acronyms: GIF! JPEG! PNG! TIFF! What do those names mean? Why does your camera spit out JPEGs? What’s the best format for a Web graphic? Grab onto a capital O and let’s get some answers. First off, don’t worry

Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471800184425760795noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-361309860284687597.post-11798521055196020462018-02-26T09:26:00.002-08:002018-02-26T09:26:55.949-08:00

Since the iPhone X lacks a Home button to press twice for the app switcher, you’ll need to switch apps in a new way. To bring up the app switcher, swipe up from the bottom of the screen to about halfway, and then pause until the app thumbnails appear. Then you can scroll through your launched apps by swiping horizontally and switch to an app by tapping its thumbnail. While in the app

Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471800184425760795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-361309860284687597.post-90655159379286721262018-02-21T13:55:00.001-08:002018-02-21T14:04:52.835-08:00

PDFs are everywhere these days. Scanners generally create documents in PDF, ebooks are often distributed in PDF, and government agencies make their paper forms available as interactive PDFs. So it’s essential to have an app on your Mac that can work with PDFs, and in fact, such an app is included: Preview. But as good as Preview is, it can’t do everything you

Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471800184425760795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-361309860284687597.post-11428722546920970442018-02-20T12:25:00.000-08:002018-02-20T12:27:07.931-08:00

Using Messages on the Mac or in iOS is simple. Start a new conversation, enter someone’s phone number or email address, and start chatting. And if you want to talk with several people at once, type a couple of phone numbers or email addresses when you begin. What you may not realize is that if everyone in your group is using an Apple device and iMessage—this is the

Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471800184425760795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-361309860284687597.post-13724388105833791242018-02-19T10:31:00.002-08:002018-02-19T10:31:54.155-08:00

Ever wanted to jump to a particular folder on your Mac while opening or saving a file? You can, thanks to a clever Finder trick. Whenever you have an Open or Save dialog open in an app, switch to the Finder, find the folder you want to access, and drag its icon into the dialog. Presto—instant navigation to that folder! This trick even works if you drag the proxy icon—the

Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471800184425760795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-361309860284687597.post-24956798522756265452018-02-17T12:57:00.000-08:002018-02-17T13:01:38.361-08:00

Apple’s new iMac Pro has started shipping, and it’s an astonishing machine. Put simply, it’s the most powerful Mac ever, a title it will likely retain until Apple releases a new version of the Mac Pro, promised for sometime in 2018. But for now, what’s special about the iMac Pro, and should you buy one? The main thing to know about the space gray iMac Pro is that it’s aimed at high-end

Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471800184425760795noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-361309860284687597.post-72614386241363640742018-02-12T14:03:00.002-08:002018-02-12T14:03:34.354-08:00

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 slightly from the top-right corner of the screen. That gives you the full set of indicators,

Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471800184425760795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-361309860284687597.post-38768320071412039822018-02-09T13:48:00.001-08:002018-02-09T13:53:08.616-08:00

Move over, Amazon Echo and Google Home, there’s a new smart speaker coming soon. First announced back in June of 2017, Apple’s long-awaited HomePod will ship in the US, UK, and Australia on February 9th for $349. You can get it in space gray or white. Where Amazon and Google focus mostly on how you can interact with their smart speakers, Apple is emphasizing the audio quality

Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471800184425760795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-361309860284687597.post-13409560073708498182018-02-08T18:03:00.002-08:002018-02-08T18:04:27.580-08:00

Have you ever needed to call emergency services from your or someone else’s iPhone? Almost by definition, such calls take place at stressful times, and it can be hard to remember what to do. Or, if you’ve been in an accident, it might be difficult or impossible to navigate the iPhone’s interface. In iOS 10.2 and watchOS 3 and later, Apple added the Emergency SOS feature to help. Emergency

Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471800184425760795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-361309860284687597.post-75436081696823867502018-02-07T20:45:00.003-08:002018-02-07T20:45:45.455-08:00

Malware makes headlines regularly these days, and although Macs are targeted far less than Windows PCs, Mac users still need to remain vigilant. A particularly serious type of malware is called “ransomware” because once it infects your computer, it encrypts all your files and holds them for ransom. Luckily, despite the virulence of ransomware in the Windows world, where there have been

Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471800184425760795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-361309860284687597.post-3197317097631045642018-01-22T10:34:00.000-08:002018-01-22T10:34:19.763-08:00

Passwords are the bane of our modern existence. Nearly anything you want to do, it seems, calls for a password. As the Internet’s reach extends beyond computers and into phones, TVs, appliances, and even toys, we have to enter passwords with increasing frequency and in ever more annoying ways. To make dealing with passwords easier and more secure, everyone should use a password manager

Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471800184425760795noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-361309860284687597.post-38770033598442395802018-01-15T10:53:00.000-08:002018-01-15T10:53:18.295-08:00

You’re out to lunch with tech-savvy friends, one of whom picks up the check and says, “Just send me your share via Apple Pay Cash.” Say what? Apple Pay Cash is Apple’s new person-to-person payment service, designed to make it easy for individuals to send and receive money. It’s perfect for repaying a friend who buys concert tickets or a relative who picks up some groceries for you. Or

Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471800184425760795noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-361309860284687597.post-17915794975366836772018-01-13T09:34:00.000-08:002018-01-13T09:34:08.715-08:00

Did you hear about the battery-related controversy swirling around Apple at the end of 2017? There has been much hue and cry about how, starting with iOS 10.2.1, iOS has been slowing down iPhones with old, weak batteries to avoid unexpected shutdowns.  In response, Apple posted A Message to Our Customers about iPhone Batteries and Performance to explain what was going on.

Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471800184425760795noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-361309860284687597.post-5166198379809067712018-01-13T09:30:00.003-08:002018-02-03T21:31:14.549-08:00

A $99-per-year Amazon Prime membership provides various perks, including free 2-day shipping from the Amazon online store and streaming access to Amazon’s media libraries. But for Apple TV users, accessing Prime Video content has been frustrating, because there was no Amazon app for the Apple TV. That has all changed now, and if you have an Amazon Prime membership and an Apple TV, it’s time

Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471800184425760795noreply@blogger.com0