Tips and Guides

I explain what matters in plain English, with practical steps you can use and recommendations based on my experience helping clients.

Showing 199–216 of 538 articles

Apple Works to Improve Safety in the Wake of AirTag Stalking Reports

Apple Works to Improve Safety in the Wake of AirTag Stalking Reports

Over the past few months, there has been a spate of media reports about how people may have been tracked without their knowledge using AirTags , Apple’s elegant location trackers. Like many mainstream media forays into the tech world, the reports are often short on detail and sometimes unclear on t

Hidden Tricks for Navigating the Mac’s App Switcher More Quickly

Hidden Tricks for Navigating the Mac’s App Switcher More Quickly

Although the Mac’s Dock shows all your running apps, it’s often not the most efficient way to switch among them. Instead, turn to the App Switcher. You may know that pressing Command-Tab switches to the last-used app, making it easy to flip back and forth between two apps. However, if you press Comm

Reduce iPhone and iPad Data Usage with Low Data Mode

Reduce iPhone and iPad Data Usage with Low Data Mode

Do you need to be careful about how much data you use with your iPhone or iPad, either via cellular or Wi-Fi? That could be true for those with Internet data caps, people using an expenive international plan while traveling, and anyone in an area with slow data speeds. To reduce your data usage, tur

Universal Control Arrives in macOS 12.3 and iPadOS 15.4

Universal Control Arrives in macOS 12.3 and iPadOS 15.4

With the recent release of macOS 12.3 Monterey and iPadOS 15.4, Apple shipped Universal Control , the last major technology promised in its 2021 operating system upgrades. Universal Control enables you to use the keyboard and mouse or trackpad attached to one Mac to control up to three other Macs o

Use Face ID While Wearing a Mask in iOS 15.4

Use Face ID While Wearing a Mask in iOS 15.4

Shortly after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Apple made it so your Apple Watch could unlock your Face ID-enabled iPhone when you were wearing a mask. Starting in iOS 15.4, Apple has taken the next step and enabled Face ID on the iPhone 12 and later to work even when you’re wearing a mask . If

Three Tricks for Dealing with Duplicated Contacts

Three Tricks for Dealing with Duplicated Contacts

Unfortunately, it’s all too common to end up with multiple cards for the same person in our Contacts app, either precise duplicates or versions that contain different details. Further muddying the situation, many of us have multiple contact accounts—such as from Google or Microsoft Exchange—and some

Make Joining Your Wi-Fi Network as Easy as Scanning a QR Code

Make Joining Your Wi-Fi Network as Easy as Scanning a QR Code

Whether you have guests who want to get on your home Wi-Fi network, customers who need to join your business network, or attendees who want to use your conference network, it’s always fussy to share the network name and password. If an iPhone user has your Apple ID email address in Contacts, their d

Use Reduce Transparency for a Consistently Colored macOS Interface

Use Reduce Transparency for a Consistently Colored macOS Interface

For years now, Apple has made transparency a part of the macOS interface, which has the effect of blending the menu bar into the background and making menus and some windows take on the background hue, as you can see on the left side of the illustration below. The effect is that each window on your

Extend Your Battery Life in macOS 12 Monterey with Low Power Mode

Extend Your Battery Life in macOS 12 Monterey with Low Power Mode

We’ve become accustomed to our iPhones and iPads switching into Low Power Mode to preserve battery life, and you can enable it manually if you want to reduce power usage for a day. New in macOS 12 Monterey for recent models of MacBook Air and MacBook Pro is a similar feature, though you must enable

Delete or Position iOS Apps from Search

Delete or Position iOS Apps from Search

In iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, Apple added a feature that would have been even more welcome before the advent of the App Library: the capability to manage apps from Search. But it’s still handy as a way to delete or position an app you can’t find on a Home screen page. Swipe down from the middle of the Ho

Does Your Magic Mouse Need More Juice? Here’s How to Check

Does Your Magic Mouse Need More Juice? Here’s How to Check

It’s unfortunate that the most recent iteration of the Magic Mouse has its Lightning charging port on the bottom, making it impossible to use while charging, unlike the Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad, which both work fine when plugged in. Luckily, the battery does usually last a month or two and

Change Apple TV keyboard to a grid

Change Apple TV keyboard to a grid

For years now, the default keyboard on Apple TV has been "linear" meaning the keyboard is one long row, A to Z, so typing means swiping left and right a lot . Personally, I hate it. Fortunately, you can switch the keyboard to a "grid" layout if that works better for you. Go to t

Where to Check macOS, iOS/iPadOS, and iCloud Storage Status

Where to Check macOS, iOS/iPadOS, and iCloud Storage Status

There’s little more frustrating than running out of space, which always seems to happen at just the wrong time. Luckily, Apple makes it easy to check any time, before it becomes a problem. On the Mac, choose About This Mac from the Apple menu and click Storage. On an iPhone or iPad, navigate to Sett

The Hidden Controls in the iPhone’s Camera App

The Hidden Controls in the iPhone’s Camera App

The beauty of the iPhone camera is that it combines the ease of use of a point-and-shoot camera with the image quality of a DSLR. To take a picture, you simply open the Camera app, frame your shot, and tap the shutter button. Simple, but what’s happening behind the scenes is anything but. The iPhone

Keep the Menu Bar Showing in Full Screen in macOS 12 Monterey

Keep the Menu Bar Showing in Full Screen in macOS 12 Monterey

Do you like using full-screen mode on your Mac but hate having the menu bar disappear unless you move the pointer to the top of the screen? In macOS 12 Monterey, Apple has at long last added a setting to keep the menu bar visible at all times. Open System Preferences > Dock & Menu Bar

Set Custom Text Sizes on a Per-App Basis in iOS 15

Set Custom Text Sizes on a Per-App Basis in iOS 15

In previous versions of iOS, you could change the systemwide text size to make all apps—at least those that support Dynamic Type—display text at larger or smaller sizes. (Most people who use this feature want the text larger so it’s easier to read with aging eyes.) In iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, however,

Image viewer