Tips Collection
Below are a collection of tips for the Mac, iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch, and Apple TV. Some tips are for specific devices, while others cover more than one device, while others are more concept. I hope you find them helpful!
Forget Adobe Acrobat: Preview May Be All You Need to Work with PDFs
You don’t see it too often anymore, but there are still people who think they need Adobe Acrobat DC to work with PDFs. It easy to see why as Adobe Acrobat is the gold standard, but it’s complicated and expensive—$14.99 per month or as part of Creative Cloud for $52.99 per month…
Keep Your Mac Quiet at Night and During Presentations with Do Not Disturb
Most of us are familiar with the Do Not Disturb feature on our iPhones since they’re with us for most of the day and often spend the night next to the bed.
What Are Those Orange and Green Dots in Your iPhone’s Status Bar?
Apple added two new status indicators to the right side of the status bar at the top of the screen in iOS 14 and iPadOS 14. These indicators are designed to give you feedback…
Apple Provides Sensible Device and Data Access Safety Advice
Our iPhones have become the keys to our digital lives. They hold our most private photos, conversations, financial data, among so much more.
So, Are Apple’s New M1-Based Macs Any Good?
Back in November, Apple unveiled its new M1 chip. They also introduced three new Macs that use it: the MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini. So, are they any good?
Are You Making the Most of the Touch Bar on Your MacBook Pro?
In 2016, Apple introduced the Touch Bar with the MacBook Pro. It’s a long, thin display above the number keys on the keyboard that shows a variety of buttons and controls.
Let Your Fingers Do the Walking: 13 Essential Trackpad Tricks for Mac Users
I’m a fan of the trackpad and I haven’t touched a mouse in years. Why? With the gestures you can use on the trackpad…
A Quick Shortcut to Create an Instant Slideshow from a Folder of Images
One of my favorite tricks is to use Quick Look to view photos in a folder on my Mac. All you do is select the photo you want to view and press the space bar. The Mac will then give you a large Quick Look of that image. Press the space bar again to close it. It is simple and quick.
Pinch to Zoom in All Photos View in iOS 14
In the Photos app on your iPad and iPhone (as well as the Mac), you have four views of your library: Years, Months, Days, and All Photos. For the first three, the Photos app doesn’t…
Have your iPhone, iPad, or even Mac listen and identify music you are listening to!
Did you know your iPhone can listen to and identify songs from music that is playing nearby? Several apps do this, but the most popular one is by a company named Shazam. Apple bought Shazam several years ago, and it has now integrated this in iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS.
Flash is dead–Keep Your Mac Secure by Uninstalling Flash Player
Back in July of 2017, Adobe announced that it would stop distributing and updating Flash Player. The date they announced this would happen is coming up fast – December 31st, 2020…
Don’t Worry about an Occasional “Not Charging” Message on Your MacBook
Starting with macOS 10.15.5 Catalina, Apple introduced a new battery health management. This new management system is designed to improve your battery’s lifespan.
Share Your Location Temporarily on the iPhone
If you’re visiting an iPhone-using friend or family member, did you know you could share your location on a temporary basis?
Rename Bluetooth Devices for Easy Management
You may have noticed that when you add a Bluetooth device to your Mac, a name is applied to it automatically. Apple devices will likely have sensible names, like Magic Mouse 2, but this isn’t the case with most non-Apple devices.
Did You Know You Can Close a Mac Laptop When It Has an External Display?
Do you work on a Mac laptop with an external display? If you do, did you know that you can close your laptop’s screen and keep working? Apple calls this closed-clamshell or closed-display mode.
Advice for Successful Online Schooling
A lot has been written about working from home, but what about schooling from home? We have some advice on how to set your kids up for success with online instruction.
‘Hey Siri’ no longer working after you bought a new iPhone?
Did you buy a new iPhone and transfer all your information only to find out ‘Hey Siri’ no longer works? This is what happened to my brother and myself after we both purchased…
Use These Settings to Show or Hide Filename Extensions
On the Mac, nearly every file has an extension. This extension is a set of characters after the name of the file. There will be a period between the file name and the extension. This extension indicates what type of file it is…
How to Make Sure Your iPhone Doesn’t Make Noise in the Night
You likely know that you can use Do Not Disturb on your iPhone to prevent random notifications from waking you at night or anytime you do not want to be disturbed…
Did you know you could customize Your Move, Exercise, and Stand Rings in watchOS 7?
You’ve always been able to adjust your Move goal, which is measured in kilocalories, in watchOS ever since Apple introduced
“HPxxxxx.framework” will damage your computer” message in macOS Mojave or Catalina
If you have an HP printer for your Mac, you may have seen this message “HPxxxxx.framework” will…
iCloud Photo Library Users: Do Not Turn Off iCloud
You can file this warning under “unless it’s absolutely necessary.” If you use iCloud Photo Library on your Mac, which I personally think is great, I recommend you don’t sign out from iCloud.
Learn how to translate a website from a foreign language to your preferred language in Safari on the iPad
In this lesson for Safari on the iPad, I look at how to translate a website form a foreign language to your preferred language. As an example, you can translate a website from Spanish to…
With an iPhone or Apple Watch, invoke Emergency SOS to call 911
If you have ever needed to call emergency services from your iPhone, you know such calls take place at stressful times. The good news is in iOS 10.2 and watchOS 3 and later, Apple added the Emergency SOS feature to help.
Learn about tabs and favicons in Safari and how Safari now shows them by default in the tab bar
Safari on the iPad has always been able to support showing a website’s favicon in a tab, but in past versions of iPadOS, you had to turn this feature on. Now with iPadOS 14, Apple…
Learn which website trackers Safari has prevented from profiling you with the Privacy Report
New with Safari and iPadOS 14, you can now view a Privacy Report. This Privacy Report shows you how many trackers Safari has prevented from profiling you with a specific website, as well as with…
Don’t forget to Enable Text Message Forwarding When You Get a New iPad or Mac
You may not have noticed, but you’ve long had text messages forwarding from your iPhone to your Mac and iPad…
Make Your Finder Window Columns the Right Size
I am a big fan of the Finder’s column view for a window. (choose View > as Columns). All the
How to Switch Apps on the iPhone with Face ID
Since the iPhone with Face ID lacks a Home button, how do you switch between open apps? …
Ransomware: What is it, Should You Be Worried, and What Protective Steps Should You Take?
You’ve probably heard of the term Malware. Unfortunately it makes headlines regularly these days. The good news is Macs are targeted far less than Windows PCs, but…
Search for Nearly Anything in Your Photos Library on the Mac
Apple’s Photos app on the Mac can identify thousands of different objects in your photos. This makes it easy to find photos based on their content. Some of what you can find include objects (cars and trains), scenery (beaches and forests), location, and even some events (weddings and parades).
Make More Space for Documents by Putting Your Dock on the Side of Your Mac’s Screen
Apple locates the Dock at the bottom of the Mac’s screen by default. That location may interfere with you seeing as much of your document windows as you’d like.
Did You Know You Can Customize the Columns in a Finder Window’s List View?
When a Mac folder contains a lot of files, the Finder’s List view often works best in my opinion. Why? It let’s you focus on a single folder…
Use Copy as Pathname on the Mac to Help Someone Find a File
Have you ever needed to show someone where to find a file on the Mac? Maybe you want to write it out in an email?…
Back Up Before Upgrading to macOS Big Sur or iOS 14!
If you poll a room of Apple experts about the one topic they get frustrated about, many will launch into rants about how too few people back up. Backups are…
Comparing Before/After Edits in Photos on the Mac
Photos on the Mac provides many editing tools, so many that it’s easy to lose track of how an edited image compares to the…
What’s the Deal with All the Privacy Requests in macOS Catalina?
You most likely have noticed that Apple has been beefing up the Mac’s privacy controls over the last few macOS releases. They more closely resemble what they have done in…
Swipe on a Trackpad to navigate web pages you’ve visited in Safari on the Mac
To navigate between web pages you’ve visited, Safari offers back and forward buttons, these are represented by arrows in the upper left of Safari’s…
Invoke Special Views and Features on the Mac with Hot Corners
When you are working on your Mac, you probably have many windows open. Some covering other apps and mostly covering the desktop. As I…
Why You Should Always Keep the Find My iPhone Feature Enabled
On the surface, Apple’s Find My iPhone features does what it says, it’ll identify the last known location of your iPhone if you lost or misplaced…
Where is the Battery Percentage Indicator on an iPhone with Face ID?
Do you have an iPhone with Face ID (without a Home button)? Are you wondering how you can see the how much battery you have as a…
Learn how to automatically open your apps on your Mac
Have you ever wanted to automatically open an app when you start your Mac? In the past this was, and still can be, done through…
Here’s How to Find Out if Your Online Passwords Have Been Stolen
Unfortunately data breaches have become commonplace. Online thieves are constantly breaking into corporate and government servers and…
Why you want to Install Minor Operating System Updates
You’ve probably noticed that Apple releases updates to iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS nearly every week. Some of these…
Need to Do Some Simple Math? Get Siri to Do It!
Chances are you’ve ended up somewhere where you needed to do some quick calculations. Perhaps you’re trying to total…
Have You Noticed that the Mac’s Dock Shows Recent Applications?
With the Dock on your Mac, you have quick access to frequently used apps, documents, and folders. It also makes it easy to switch to a running…
Silence or Mute Audio-playing Tabs in Safari on the Mac
Do Web sites that auto-play videos or ads drive you mad? They do me. Especially when I reopen Safari and several of tabs that I had…
