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 Block Spam Text Messages on the iPhone (or Any Phone)

Apr 9, 2013 - 33 Comments
Anatomy of text message spam

Having been inundated with spam text messages and SMS lately on my iPhone, I went looking for a solution to put an end to it all. Though it’s not as simple as it should be, there is a way to block virtually all spam texts from ever reaching your phone, and it actually works. To … Read More

Customize the Command Line by Adding Emoji Icons to the Bash Prompt

Apr 8, 2013 - 11 Comments
Add Emoji icons to the Terminal prompt

A very unique and amusing way to customize the bash prompt appearance is to add one of Mac OS X’s Emoji icons to transform the appearance of the prompt itself. This isn’t going to be the most practical tweak in the world on it’s own, but it is entertaining and because it’s using traditional methods … Read More

Copy Movies to the iPad the Easy Way

Apr 8, 2013 - 7 Comments
Copy a movie to the iPad the easy way

The iPad can play a variety of video formats without any additional apps or tools, and the bundled Videos app is more than sufficient to play a variety of very common movie file types including mp4, m4v, mov, and mkv. If you have such a movie on a computer that you want to watch on … Read More

Create a Contact Sheet of Thumbnails with Automator in Mac OS X

Apr 6, 2013 - 42 Comments
Generated Contact Sheet made through Services

Contact Sheets, often called Proof Sheets, are essentially columns and rows of image thumbnails, making a bunch of photos very easy to quickly review. Though they’re commonly used by photographers, they have a wide range of uses outside of the pro-photography world, from artists to designers to UI/UX engineers. Rather than creating a contact sheet … Read More

Fast Navigate the Calendar in iOS with a Tap & Hold

Apr 5, 2013 - 2 Comments
Jump to todays date in Calendar app for iOS

Using the Calendar app on the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to navigate far into the future or back in time doesn’t have to be a slow process of constant taps to find a distant event or important date, and neither does jumping back to the current date once you’re far removed. Here are two … Read More

Access the VNC Client in Mac OS X & Create a Screen Sharing App Shortcut

Apr 5, 2013 - 9 Comments
Mac VNC client, Screen Sharing

Screen Sharing in Mac OS X allows you to set up a Mac so that it can be connected to remotely through the VNC protocol, with the full screen being both visible and usable to the connected user. As you may have guessed, this means Mac OS X has a built-in VNC client, and not … Read More

Add International TLD’s to the Quick-Access Keyboard in Safari for iOS

Apr 4, 2013 - 6 Comments
International TLD's visible in iOS keyboard of Safari

Most iOS Safari users know by now that you can quickly type out TLD (top level domains) for websites in Safari by hitting the “.com” button on the keyboard, and that by tapping and holding on that same “.com” button a variety of TLD’s will be available that are relevant to your default keyboard language. … Read More

Hide the Sleep, Restart, and Shut Down Buttons at the Login Screen of OS X

Apr 4, 2013 - 2 Comments
Sleep, Restart, and Shut Down buttons at the login screen

The login screen of OS X typically shows a list of users in addition to a variety of power options, including sleep, restart, and shut down. While most home users will want to keep those options available, there are many instances where hiding the power buttons is desired to prevent the Mac from going offline. … Read More

Keep Track of Defaults Write Commands Used in Mac OS X Automatically

Apr 3, 2013 - 11 Comments
used defaults write commands list

If you like to tweak Mac OS X with a lot of defaults write commands from the terminal, you already know how hard it can be to keep track of them. Sure you can query command history for specific command syntax, and you can always use grep to find executed defaults commands, but there’s a … Read More

Convert a Movie to iPad Format for Free with QuickTime

Apr 3, 2013 - 4 Comments
Videos app icon for iOS

Want to watch a video that is sitting on your computer on an iPad instead? That’s simple, and for most video files you can just copy them right over and watch instantly through the Videos app. On the other hand, if you’ve ever tried to copy a movie over to an iPad and discovered an … Read More

Include Attachments with Reply in Mail App for Mac OS X

Apr 2, 2013 - 2 Comments
Include Original Attachments in Email Replies in Mac OS X Mail app

Mail app in recent versions of Mac OS X defaults to not include the original attachments of an email when that email is replied to. While that can be fine for many cases, if you cc or bcc another person to an email it can be very frustrating to discover the originally attached document or … Read More

Easily Install Foreign Apps Onto the iPhone & iPad

Mar 31, 2013 - 11 Comments
Download foreign App Store Apps onto iOS devices

If you’ve ever wanted to get a foreign app that isn’t named in your native language, let alone native alphabet, onto your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, you’ve probably noticed it’s not the easiest thing in the world. For one, App Stores can be separated, so for example some apps available on the US App … Read More

How to Get Bokeh Light Effects with the iPhone Camera

Mar 31, 2013 - 7 Comments
iPhone bokeh

Bokeh is a photography effect that creates strong light blurs on any out of focus light, frequently rendered as circular blurry elements where a point of light is visible in the image. You’ll see it often in professional photography as well as more abstract artistically oriented photography, and it can help to create a depth … Read More

Delete App Data from iCloud via Mac OS X

Mar 29, 2013 - 2 Comments
Delete specific documents from iCloud

Many apps for both iOS and OS X store documents and app data directly in iCloud, this allows easy syncing between devices and also provides a certain extra level of backup for some apps, since it’s all stored in the cloud. On the other hand, you may want to remove some of those documents and … Read More

How to Hide Apps on the iPhone & iPad

Mar 28, 2013 - 21 Comments
Hide apps from the Home Screen in iOS easily

Want to hide an app or two from appearing on the iOS home screen? Maybe you want to hide all apps downloaded from the App Store, but keep the defaults visible? Or maybe you just want to hide a stock app that shipped with your iPhone or iPad like Safari or iTunes? You can do … Read More

How to Sync Safari Bookmarks Between Mac OS X, Windows, iPhone, & iPad

Mar 28, 2013 - 4 Comments
Safari

Bookmarks saved within Safari will sync between all of your other iCloud equipped devices, assuming you have iCloud configured correctly do so. This means a website you bookmark on your Mac will sync over to an iPad, and something bookmarked on your iPhone will sync back to your Mac, iPad, and Windows PC, and vice … Read More

Create an Instant Notepad in Any Web Browser Window

Mar 27, 2013 - 15 Comments
Instant Notepad from any web browser

Ever needed a quick place to paste some text or make a quick note while you’re doing web work? Using a neat trick, you can turn any web browser window or tab into an instant notepad that you can write in, copy and paste out of, and even adjust the font sizes within. There really … Read More

Convert Fahrenheit to Celsius & Other Temperatures on the iPhone with Siri

Mar 27, 2013 - 6 Comments
Change temperature scale on the iPhone

Some countries use fahrenheit, others use celsius, and if you’re an alien on an unusually extreme planet maybe you even use kelvin… whatever the case we’ve all run into the situation where someone from elsewhere is referring to a temperature in a scale you’re unfamiliar with. Obviously if someone in the USA says “wow it … Read More

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