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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Change How Long Notification Banners Persist for in Mac OS X

Jan 29, 2014 - 21 Comments
Notifications banner in OS X

Banner notifications pop up on the side of the screen in Mac OS X and disappear on their own within a few seconds. Some users may find that banner persistence time to be either too long or too short, and that is what we’re going to focus on changing here, giving you some control over … Read More

How to Enable Tap To Click on Mac Trackpads with Mac OS X

Jan 28, 2014 - 34 Comments
Tap to click on the Trackpad in Mac OS X

The tap-to-click ability is enabled by default on most PC laptops, while on the Mac side of things it’s usually disabled by default. For the unfamiliar, tap-to-click means that a single tap or touch on the MacBook trackpad or Magic Trackpad is registered as a click, thereby preventing the need to actually press down the … Read More

Give Your Mac a Black Menu Bar in OS X Mavericks with ObsidianMenuBar

Jan 28, 2014 - 13 Comments
Black menu bar in OS X Mavericks

The menu bar of OS X has two default color choices, simple grey, or translucent, which varies a bit based upon the wallpaper used. Neither of these looks are really anything to write home about. That’s why the third party mod ObsidianMenuBar is a nice alternative, it gives your Mac a black menu bar. It’s … Read More

How to Verify (& Repair) a Disk from the Command Line of Mac OS X

Jan 27, 2014 - 8 Comments
Repair Disk from the Command Line

The Disk Utility app bundled with Mac OS X has a command line equivalent which offers advanced users the ability to perform disk maintenance from the terminal, including disk verification and repairs. This allows for a variety of helpful troubleshooting abilities, including the possibility to remotely issue disk repairs though SSH, or through Single User … Read More

Make a Word & Character Counting Service for All Apps in Mac OS X

Jan 27, 2014 - 25 Comments
Word and character counting service for all apps in Mac OS X

While some writing and text apps have native word and character counters as part of their built-in feature set, not every app does. That can be changed easily though by creating a Mac OS X Service that will provide word counts and character counts from just about anywhere on a Mac that text is selectable. … Read More

Swipe Between Open Apps Faster at the iOS Multitasking Screen

Jan 25, 2014 - Leave a Comment
multitask faster in iOS by swiping the icons

Most iPhone and iPad users know the iOS multitasking screen is where you can quit the apps you no longer want open, and it’s also where you go to switch between any of the open apps on the device. But if you have a lot of apps open, you may notice that switching from the … Read More

Customize the Mac Menu Bar Clock Appearance with Emoji in Mac OS X

Jan 24, 2014 - 4 Comments
Custom Mac Menu Bar clock with Emoji

The Mac menu bar clock isn’t particularly fancy nor is it meant to be, but if you’re a tinkerer and like to customize things, you might find some enjoyment in adding some time-changing emoji characters to the clock as an addition to the standard AM / PM indicators that show up alongside the time. Adding … Read More

How to Get Apple’s Hidden 30th Anniversary Macintosh Icon Font

Jan 24, 2014 - 20 Comments
Mac Icon font

If retro Macs built out out LEGO that double as iPad stands aren’t your thing, maybe you’ll enjoy this little Easter Egg of sorts that Apple seems to have left on their 30th Mac Anniversary website. It’s a free 62 character font of Mac icons, ranging from the original Macintosh 128k through the PowerBook lineup, … Read More

How to Enable a Passcode for iPhone / iPad

Jan 22, 2014 - 15 Comments
The Enter Passcode iPhone Screen

Virtually all iPhone and iPad users should set an iOS passcode for their individual devices. This forces anyone attempting to use the device to enter a password before being able to unlock it or gain access to anything on the device, and it also requires the same passcode before any user is able to make … Read More

Stop Auto-Playing Videos on Facebook for iOS to Conserve Cellular Data

Jan 22, 2014 - 3 Comments
Facebook app icon

Facebook recently began to auto-play videos that are contained within the news feed of the Facebook app for iOS (and presumably Android). Though the videos play without sound, that auto-play behavior can still greatly increase the iPhones cellular data usage due to the large size of video files as they are streamed to the device. … Read More

How to Get an App-Free Blank Home Screen in iOS

Jan 21, 2014 - 18 Comments
Creating a new blank home screen page in iTunes

The iPhone Home Screen has room for 20 app icons on the front page and four Dock icons across the bottom, with even more app spots available for the iPad. If that seems like 20 icons too many for you, using a little trick lets users create a completely blank home screen page in iOS, … Read More

Change the Subtitle Font Size for iTunes Video Playback in Mac OS X

Jan 20, 2014 - 2 Comments
Change the font size of subtitles in Mac OS X video

The default subtitle text size for video playback can be fairly small in Mac OS X, and while it may be tolerable on a smaller screened device, once you send the Macs display it to a larger screen like a TV, it can be difficult to read. Fortunately, Mac OS X provides a lot of … Read More

How to Use iPhone for Turn-By-Turn Voice Navigation Directions with Siri

Jan 19, 2014 - 29 Comments
Turn By Turn Voice Directions with Siri on iPhone

Voice turn by turn navigation and directions are incredibly convenient and easily one of the best features of Apple Maps, but rather than fumbling around with your iPhone while driving, you can rely entirely on Siri. This makes turn-by-turn almost entirely hands free; you give Siri a voice command to start the directions, and then … Read More

See What Browser Window or Tab is Playing Audio / Video in Chrome Quickly

Jan 17, 2014 - 8 Comments
Chrome browser tab with an audio playing indicator

The newest versions of Google Chrome have a fantastic feature addition that allow you to instantly see what open web browser tab or window is playing audio. That may seem ho-hum, but if you’ve ever gone on a wild goose chase trying to figure out which tab out of 50 million tabs is playing some … Read More

How to Block Cookies in Safari for iPhone or iPad

Jan 17, 2014 - 4 Comments
Safari

The Safari web browser for iOS provides for tremendous user control over how web cookies are handled on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, allowing users to choose to block all cookies, allow all cookies, or selectively block only third party tracking and advertiser cookies.

Access an iCloud Contacts List from Mail Composer in Mac OS X

Jan 15, 2014 - Leave a Comment
Quick Address Panel in Mail app for OS X

The Mail compose window has long had an auto-complete function that lets you start typing a name or email address to see a list of suggestions for completing the contacts email. That list is based upon who you’ve email and also what contacts you have in your address book, but now with the newest versions … Read More

Get Song Lyrics with Siri from the iPhone or iPad

Jan 15, 2014 - 4 Comments

Everyones favorite digital friend Siri can improve your music experience and song recollection by retrieving song lyrics for you. Whether you’re aiming for some spontaneous iPhone based Karaoke, looking to settle a dispute over what an artist is saying, wanting to add some lyrics to a song that is missing them, or just wondering what … Read More

View Extended Weather Details in Weather App for iPhone

Jan 14, 2014 - 4 Comments
Get more specific weather details from the iPhone

Obviously the Weather app on iPhone will tell you temperatures and a five-day forecast, but the revised default iPhone Weather app can also provide additional weather information without having to ask Siri. This includes much more specific data, like humidity, the chance of rain, the wind speed and direction, and the current heat index. You’d … Read More

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