Ever want to watch a movie together with a friend and keep the audio private between the two of you? In the old days, you might have used a headphone splitter with two inputs for your Mac’s one headphone port. If your headphones were wireless, you probably thought you were out of luck. In [...]
What do you know about the ellipsis? This character has become commonplace to represent the “More” menu in various mobile applications. But what about on the Mac? How often do you explore the menu bar? That’s the strip at the top of the Mac screen. Have you noticed an ellipsis trailing various menu commands? [...]
There are a number of ways to scroll on a Mac, iPhone, or iPad. Left with only a mobile device touchscreen, options are more limited, while adding a keyboard provides a number of keys and shortcuts that mirror the Mac’s capabilities. Tap the Status Bar On an iPhone or iPad, there’s an easy [...]
Spring-loaded folders are a way of moving or copying files through your folder hierarchy “without manually opening a single folder,” as described in O’Reilly’s Visual QuickStart Guide. This is one of the oldest features in the modern Mac operating system. In fact, it was first introduced in 1999 as part of Mac OS 9, 17 months [...]
Retiring an email address, especially one you’ve used for a decade or more, can be a tedious process and may take six months to complete. So, be patient with yourself if you choose to take this on. You might arrive on this path because your email is rife with spam, connects slowly or inconsistently, [...]
In Desktop Reflection, I shared my two cents on how to make your digital desktop mimic your physical desktop, including consolidating items, organizing files in folders, forcing icons to align in a grid, and allowing them to be stacked with like items. The Desktop is essentially a gigantic, borderless Finder window in Icon view. [...]
Some technical support articles are difficult to find and some are downright wrong. As technology design changes, it’s up to developers to update their documentation and they don’t always get it right. Further, sometimes their write-ups are thorough enough but not linked from enough places to easily locate. Here are some tips for finding [...]
When you travel internationally, especially outside the United States, it’s important to consider how to keep your iPhone connected. Domestic carriers don’t automatically work abroad and generally you must subscribe to an add-on service or a different carrier’s plan to get service elsewhere. iPhones released since the iPhone XS and XR in 2018 have [...]
The following tips cover new features in iOS 16 as well as settings and experiences that have been around for a while. I hope they help you become more efficient and flexible with your iPhone. Customize Lock Screen with Classic Wallpaper When you upgraded to iOS 16, the first thing you might have [...]
It’s a good idea to keep your eyes peeled for the various ways your devices call out for your attention. Macs do this in several ways, including Dock icons bouncing. On various devices, certain glyphs appear in an application and invite you to click for more information or to take a particular action. Sometimes [...]
