I explain what matters in plain English, with practical steps you can use and recommendations based on my experience helping clients.
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One common misunderstanding about computers is just what memory is and how it affects your computer. If you're computer savvy, you probably know this already, but I wanted to answer this in a blog post because I find myself explaining this frequently, and for good reason: memory and storage
iOS 8 introduced a new predictive text system as a feature of the new keyboard. I hate it. Maybe if I gave it a chance it would help me out but to me it's a huge distraction and instead of thinking about what I'm typing I end up evaluating and asking myself "is this the next word?"While yo
For a few years now, iPhones have had the ability to share your location with others via the Find My Friends app. This worked well but required everyone to download and install the app. Beginning with iOS 8, this feature has been expanded outside of the Find Friends app directly into Messages whic
iOS 8 introduced a new way to activate Siri. With "Hey Siri" turned on (it's off by default), any time your iPhone is plugged into power it will listen for the keywords "Hey Siri". You can either say "Hey Siri" and wait for Siri's beep to begin your query, or you can sa
Mobile versions of websites can be great because they trim out the extras for efficient viewing on a phone or tablet, but sometimes you want all of the features. It's easy to load the full website on iOS 8's Mobile Safari, but you need to know where to look. Tap the address bar. You may need to g
In the past, iChat had screen sharing built-in, and the feature continued after iChat got replaced with Messages, though of course it only works over traditional chat protocols such as AIM and Jabber. But with OS X Yosemite, screen sharing works via iMessages which lowers the bar of entry, consideri
Apple has added iOS screen recording to Yosemite and iOS 8. It is aimed at developers who want to make video demos of their apps, though it has some utility for other people as well. Plug your iOS 8 (or higher) iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch into your OS X Yosemite Mac by USB Lightning cable and unlock
For quite some time now you've been able to send iMessages directly from your computer. However, that was limited to iMessages; if you wanted to text someone on Android, Blackberry, etc., you were out of luck. But beginning with the combination OS X Yosemite and iOS 8.1, your computer, iPad, and iPo
In the mid-2000s we were encouraged to create a contact in our cell phone address book called " ICE " (in case of emergency) for paramedics, police, and others who might need our emergency contact information. Today though, with smartphones that contain an enormous amount of personal infor
iOS 8 introduced Wi-Fi Calling, a new feature that allows your phone to connect to your cell phone company (currently only T-Mobile) over Wi-Fi rather than via the cell phone tower. This allows you to place a cell phone call where your cellular signal is weak or non-existant, even avoiding roaming c
Shazam has been popular on iPhone for quite some time. Fire it up and the app will listen to the music playing and report back what the song is.In iOS 8, however, Siri can access Shazam even if you don't have the app on your phone. Just ask "What song is playing" or "What song is thi
Previous to iOS 8, your only real option for interacting with notifications was to "activate" them, which involved tapping to open the corresponding app. Now you have far richer options for both built-in and third-party apps.For example: Reminders now lets you snooze a notification fo
FaceTime and FaceTime Audio are great features that allow you to make phone and video calls over WiFi instead of over the phone system. It works very similarly to Skype except all you need is the call recipient's iPhone number or Apple ID. People who call or travel internationally are especially tha
iOS 8 brings many features to keep you in control. Among them is battery usage data. This lets you see what apps have been hogging your precious electrons and might give you a clue of why.Tap Settings > General > Usage > Battery Usage . Wait a moment and the data should l
If you've purchased movies from the iTunes store, you've no doubt noticed that most titles include a feature called "iTunes Extras", which is similar to the extra features we have on DVDs. It's a collection of photo galleries, interviews, behind-the-scenes clips, etc. However, until now yo
Beginning with OS X 10.7 Lion, Apple decided that it was best to hide the Library folder from users. It was probably a good decision because the Library folder contains all of the settings files for your account, and messing with files in there can disastrous effects if you aren't careful. So it mak
You can tell with a quick glance whether an open document has been saved or not. A black dot in the red "close" button means it has not been saved. No dot means it has. This works with nearly any program on Mac OS X.Note that this doesn't apply to some apps like Pages and Numbers, because
It always seems that when I talk to Siri I forget what I'm saying halfway through. Siri detects a pause and assumes I'm finished. New in iOS 7.1, you can now press and hold the home button, talk at whatever pace you wish, and then release the home button when you are finished. Siri will keep waiting
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