Tips & Tricks

Tips and tricks for all things Apple! Whether you want to learn tips for a Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, or much more, you will find many tricks, tips, tutorials, and excellent walkthroughs for Apple devices and software here.

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How to Clear Instagram Search History

Mar 17, 2016 - 19 Comments

As Instagram continues to grow with pictures of just about anything imaginable, you may find yourself browsing and searching for photos of, well, anything. Instagram keeps track of the searches you make in the app, and when you return to the search tab and search field, you’ll find your prior search history is visible. That’s … Read More

How to Delete All Emails from Mail in Mac OS X

Mar 17, 2016 - 17 Comments
Mail app icon

If you use the Mail app on a Mac, it’s fairly likely that you regularly delete emails that you determine to be unnecessary, junk, or that simply aren’t needed. Typically this is a selective process where particular email messages are removed as needed, but in some situations you may want to go all out and … Read More

Enable Low Power Mode on iPhone for Maximum Battery Life Performance

Mar 16, 2016 - 17 Comments
Low Power Mode on iPhone boosts battery performance

If the average iPhone user has a complaint about their device, it’s almost always that the battery of iPhone doesn’t last as long as they’d like it to. While this is less of a concern with the larger iPhone Plus models, the fact is that all iPhones can run out of battery during the course … Read More

Get Specific Details in Health App for iPhone by Rotating a Dashboard

Mar 15, 2016 - 7 Comments
Tap to see specifics for dates, time, hour in Health app

The Health app on iPhone is able to track steps and mileage, and if you have an Apple Watch it will keep track of your heart rate, active calories with a pedometer, and other fitness data as well. When you open Health app, the Dashboard offers an overview of activity for the day, week, month, … Read More

How to Show & Verify Code Signatures for Apps in Mac OS X

Mar 14, 2016 - 12 Comments
Check and verify code signing of apps in Mac OS X

Code signed applications allow security conscious users to verify the creator and hash of a particular app to help confirm it has not been corrupted or tampered with. This is rarely necessary for average Mac users, particularly those who obtain their software from the Mac App Store or other trusted sources since the apps are … Read More

Disable Animations in iOS with a Bug

Mar 12, 2016 - 5 Comments
An iPhone

The zipping zooming flying around animations strewn throughout iOS are activated when opening and closing apps, switching app screens, tapping settings, and doing just about anything else on an iPhone or iPad. This motion eye candy causes some users to experience nausea, but aside from that they also make the device feel a bit slower … Read More

Zoom Into & Out of Video on iPhone & iPad with Gestures

Mar 11, 2016 - 1 Comment
Zoom in and out of video with gestures in iOS

iPhone and iPad users have long been able to zoom into still photos and pictures on their devices, and now with the latest versions of iOS, you can zoom into and out of videos and movies that are playing as well.

How to Convert plist Files to XML or Binary in Mac OS X

Mar 10, 2016 - 4 Comments
Convert a plist file to XML or binary in Mac OS X

Plist files contain preference specifics and properties relevant to a particular application or portion of Mac OS X system software. Depending on where the plist file is located and what function they serve, they can either be in XML format, binary format, and sometimes even json. For users who need to modify a plist file … Read More

iPhone Stuck in Zoom Mode? It’s Easy to Fix

Mar 9, 2016 - 63 Comments
iPhone stuck in Zoom mode

iOS includes a helpful feature which allows users to zoom into anything on an iPhone or iPad screen to make it easier to read text and view elements. While this feature is undeniably useful for many users, it can also be a source of frustration for others who wind up enabling the feature accidentally, only … Read More

How to Change Launchpad Icon Grid Layout in Mac OS X

Mar 9, 2016 - 18 Comments
Change the Launchpad grid icon count in Mac OS X

Launchpad is the quick application launcher available from the Mac OS X Dock and a keystroke that looks quite a bit like the Homescreen of iOS. By default, the Launchpad app grid usually displays icons in 7 rows and 5 columns of apps, but with a little adjustment from the command line of OS X … Read More

Preview Links with 3D Touch on iPhone

Mar 8, 2016 - 2 Comments
Preview links 3d Touch options

One of the more useful 3D Touch tricks is the ability to preview a link before opening it, allowing iPhone users a way to quickly see a preview of a webpage link before loading the entire thing in Safari. This can be activated from an email, from messages, or Safari itself, and it helps to … Read More

How to Delete Specific Message Segments in Mac OS X Messages

Mar 8, 2016 - 7 Comments
Deleting multiple message segments in Messages for Mac OS X

The Mac Messages app allows users to delete portions of a conversation and specific messages contained within a thread, without clearing out the entire chat transcript. This targeted message removal feature is helpful if you want to delete a part of a chat that is best left private, or perhaps because it contains sensitive data, … Read More

See How Much Data a FaceTime Call Uses on iPhone

Mar 7, 2016 - 5 Comments
Check FaceTime call data usage per call in iOS

FaceTime is the lovely video chat service that is available for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac OS X, and while it’s a lot of fun to use and helps keep people in touch, something to keep in mind is that FaceTime can use quite a bit of data as it’s essentially streaming and uploading … Read More

How to Increase Color Saturation of a Picture in Mac OS X with Preview

Mar 6, 2016 - 11 Comments
How to adjust color saturation of an image in Mac OS X

An images color saturation is expressed by the intensity of the color of a picture, thus a picture modified with higher saturation will appear with vivid colors, and a picture with the lowest saturation winds up turning a picture to black and white. Adjusting saturation is a common photo editing technique to both enhance or … Read More

Fix a Missing Sidebar in Open & Save Dialog Windows of Mac OS X

Mar 5, 2016 - 29 Comments
Sidebar missing in Open and Save dialog windows

Some Mac users have discovered the sidebar to be missing in the Open and Save dialog windows that appear throughout Mac OS X. Since the sidebar contains quick access links to various points in the file system, including user directory pictures, documents, the desktop, Macintosh HD, and tags, this can be frustrating and lead to … Read More

How to Backup an iPhone to External Hard Drive with Mac OS X

Mar 4, 2016 - 224 Comments
How to backup iPhone, iPad to an external hard drive

For those of us with larger storage size iPhone and iPad models, backing up the device locally can be a burden on limited disk space. A simple solution to this storage dilemma is to backup an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to an external hard drive instead, where disk space is often more abundant. We’ll … Read More

Open the Multitasking App Switcher with 3D Touch on iPhone

Mar 3, 2016 - 3 Comments
The App Switcher multitasking screen on iPhone can be accessed with 3D Touch

Modern iPhone models with 3D Touch displays have an alternative method of opening the multi-tasking app switcher screen, rather than having to double-press the Home button. This trick requires a little bit of practice, so try it out a few times yourself to see how it works on the iPhone.

Use Apple Earbud Headphones with Xbox One Controller Without the Buzzing Feedback Sound

Mar 2, 2016 - 18 Comments
Use Apple Earbuds with Xbox One Controller

The Apple Earbud headphones are pretty great for a free set of earphones, and the Xbox One is a great gaming console with a controller that allows Xbox players to plug a headphone set directly in to the wireless controller, so naturally it’s not surprising that some Xbox One players would like to use a … Read More

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