Tips & Tricks

Many developers require MySQL on their Macs, but if you’ve tried to install MySQL in OS X El Capitan and Yosemite, you likely noticed that you’ll get an “installation failed” error during the process. That error sounds worse than it is, because you can avoid it entirely by choosing not to install the startup item … Read More

Messages app is generally associated with conversations, but new to Mac OS is a feature which allows Mac users to initiate screen sharing with another Mac user directly from an active iMessage window. This is great for remote collaboration, showing off something on your computer, a file transfer between remote Macs, or even for quick … Read More

Want to see the full desktop version of a website when browsing the web with Safari on iPhone? It’s easy when you learn how. Most iPhone users like to read and use websites specifically designed for mobile usage, which tend to simplify the user experience and focus attention a bit more. Since many websites detect … Read More

The iPhone has long had the excellent Personal Wi-Fi Hotspot feature, which effectively turns an iPhone or cellular iPad into a wireless router that Macs and other devices can connect to. That iPhone Hotspot feature gets even better for Mac users running modern versions of Mac OS X, because you can now enable the iPhones … Read More

While many Mac users have updated to OS X Yosemite, a notable amount have chosen to stay on OS X Mavericks or Mountain Lion for a variety of reasons, and some have even had to downgrade due to frustrations or incompatibilities that were experienced with the new version of OS X. Whatever the reason, if … Read More

If you’d rather your iTunes player take up less screen real estate, iTunes has two alternative player appearance options available, the album cover player, and the popular mini player. These are not new features to iTunes 12, but like many other things which have been switched up in the latest version, accessing them has changed … Read More

Safari in iOS has always had the ability to clear all browser history on the iPhone and iPad, but up until the latest versions of iOS, it was either delete all history or nothing. That has changed however, and if you would rather selectively delete individual pages from history instead of clearing out all browser … Read More

Some Mac users may encounter situations where they need to flush DNS cache in OS X for a name server to resolve properly, or for some DNS address change to become noticed by their individual computer. This is particularly relevant for system administrators, network admins, and web developers, but there are certainly situations where other … Read More

The Notes app in modern versions of iOS includes support for text formatting and media insertion. This is a welcome change for many reasons, as it not only improves the functionality of Notes app to serve as a scratchpad, but it also makes the Notes app and it’s iCloud syncing abilities between iOS devices and … Read More

A number of Mac users who were experiencing wi-fi connection difficulties with OS X Yosemite have found the problems continue to persist after updating to OS X 10.10.1. The reasons for this are not entirely clear given that OS X 10.10.1 has aimed specifically at improving wi-fi reliability, but some of the traditional troubleshooting steps … Read More

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus gained a feature called Reachability which, when activated, brings all onscreen icons and elements closer to the bottom of the display and Home button, thus making it easier for your thumb or finger to reach the desired touch points. While Reachability is proving to be a popular tool … Read More

Spotlight is the fantastic search engine built into OS X and iOS, and while most people associate Spotlight searches with finding documents on their Mac or launching applications, the feature set has expanded dramatically since OS X Yosemite. One of the more useful tricks found within the revised Spotlight search is the ability to search … Read More

The Mac Messages app has long had the ability to change the text size and font of your messages and conversations, but the adjustment functions have changed a bit in modern versions of MacOS system software, including Mojave, High Sierra, Sierra, OS X El Capitan and Yosemite. In Messages under Mac OS X, you now … Read More

If you’ve ever tried to give directions to someone when you aren’t that good at it, or maybe aren’t entirely sure where you are let alone how to get there, you know how frustrating of an experience that can be. Fortunately you can avoid that situation entirely now though thanks to a great location sharing … Read More

Nearly every email server has a file size limit, typically ranging between 10MB and 40MB, and any file attached to an email larger than that will typically bounce or not send. Apple has come up with an interesting solution to this problem, calling it Mail Drop. Essentially, MailDrop will automatically detect when a large file … Read More

The iOS Mail app has long included a variety of ways to be notified of new emails, whether it’s the standard notification for all new messages, or having a unique alert set to specific VIP contacts. Perhaps even better is a feature added to recent versions of iOS that allow for individual email thread alerts, … Read More

Autofill is one of the more useful features of Safari that automatically fill online order forms and logins, whether it’s a name, shipping address, login and password, or even payment and credit card information. Of course, if you change any of that information like an address or payment details, that old autofill information filling up … Read More

Want to see a Preview panel in Mac Finder windows so that you can get a glance at what images and files look like before opening them? Modern versions of MacOS allow for this handy Preview feature in the Finder. Longtime Mac users may be aware that the Column view of the Mac OS X … Read More