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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Convert MKV to M4V for Free with Subler

Mar 23, 2012 - 25 Comments
MKV to M4V

If you have MKV movie files you’ve probably noticed they can’t be played on an iPad, iPhone, Apple TV, or a variety of other players. Not to worry though, because MKV video can be easily converted to the compatible M4V format using a free tool called Subler. If you want to get technical, this isn’t … Read More

How to Check How Much Storage Space is Used & Available on iPhone or iPad

Mar 22, 2012 - 10 Comments
Check How Much Storage Available on iOS

Knowing how much space you have used on an iOS device and, maybe even more useful and more relevant, knowing how much storage you have remaining, are two important things for any iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch owner. This guide will show you how to find out just how much storage space is available and … Read More

Run Windows & Microsoft Office on the iPad for Free with OnLive Desktop

Mar 22, 2012 - 17 Comments
Windows on iPad with OnLive Desktop

Want to run Windows 7 right on an iPad? OnLive Desktop does exactly that, letting you access a cloud-based Windows 7 PC directly from iOS. Complete with the full Microsoft Office 2010 suite, you can use Word, Excel, and Powerpoint with full touch controls, and believe it or not it’s actually really fast and fluid. … Read More

Automatically Add Songs & Movies to iTunes

Mar 21, 2012 - 19 Comments
Automatically Add Music and Movies to iTunes

Using a little known folder buried within the iTunes directory, you can automatically add any compatible media to iTunes, be it songs, music, movies, just by placing files into the directory. This gets even better when you point downloads to that directory, because all downloaded media is then immediately synced to iTunes with no user … Read More

Change the Shell in Mac OS X Terminal

Mar 21, 2012 - 12 Comments
Change Shell in Terminal

Tired of bash? Prefer zsh, ksh, tcsh, fish, or sh? You can quickly change the default shell in Terminal app, in addition to changing a users default login shell for when logging in remotely with SSH or otherwise. Here’s how to do both.

6 Tips to Maximize iPad Battery Life

Mar 21, 2012 - 11 Comments
iOS battery

The iPad battery is advertised to last 10 hours and that number really isn’t exaggerated, the battery life is phenomenal. No adjustments are needed to get 8-10 hours of use out of the iPad, but if you want to squeeze the absolute longest amount of battery use possible, you can adjust a few settings to … Read More

How to Quickly Fix iPad 3 Wi-Fi Reception Problems

Mar 21, 2012 - 83 Comments
iPad 3 No Reception

If your new iPad 3 has poor wi-fi reception, you’re not alone. After getting a shiny new iPad 3rd gen, I immediately noticed it wasn’t registering any bars of wireless reception, and wi-fi was strangely slow regardless of the network I joined or the distance to the router. It must be defective and I should … Read More

Put a Mac to Sleep Using an Apple Remote Control

Mar 20, 2012 - 7 Comments
Sleep Mac

If you have an Apple Remote Control and a Mac with an IR receiver port, you can quickly put the Mac to sleep using just the remote control. Obviously you’ll need to be in the same room as the Mac to do this, but it’s pretty handy. Here’s what to do: Point the remote control … Read More

How to Send a Mass Text Message from iPhone

Mar 20, 2012 - 21 Comments
Send a Mass Text Message from iPhone

Do you have an event, announcement, or statement you want to broadcast to a group of people? You can easily send out a mass text message to multiple recipients from the iPhone Messages app. The group text will work regardless of whether the contacts you are sending to have iMessage or SMS text messaging, though … Read More

14 Must-Know iPad Tips & Tricks

Mar 20, 2012 - 16 Comments
iPad Dictation

Whether you’re new to the iPad or a longtime user, here are some great tips to help you get the most out of the device. A few of these are intended for using on the new iPad, but most of them will be relevant to all iPad models of all ages.

Simplify the OS X Finder to Look Like a Retro Mac OS Classic Style

Mar 20, 2012 - 10 Comments
Traditional Finder Styling

Many years ago before Mac OS X, the Mac OS Finder was much more simple. There was no toolbar, no sidebar, no drop shadows, and each folder opened in it’s own window showing you only the icons in that Folder. That was basically the default desktop experience from Mac OS 1.0 through Mac OS 9, … Read More

Secure an iPad or iPhone with a Stronger Passcode

Mar 19, 2012 - 14 Comments
Secure Passcode on iPad

The default passcode for iPad and iPhone uses a fairly simple four digit numerical password, these are certainly better to use than nothing, but they can be somewhat easy to guess because statistically many people use common passwords or some variation of a simple theme, like a repetition, countdown, or birth year. An easy way … Read More

9 Simple Tips to Speed Up an Old Mac

Mar 19, 2012 - 15 Comments
Remove Login Items

If you have an older Mac that feels slow and sluggish from time to time, follow these simple tips to regain some long lost speed. We’re going to keep it simple with real tips that will speed up a Mac that are not overly complex or complicated. Nothing here is too technical or time consuming … Read More

How to Unhide Purchases from App Store on iPhone & iPad

Mar 19, 2012 - 18 Comments
Unhide Purchases in App Store

Need to find or reveal hidden App Store purchases so that you can access and download them again in iOS or ipadOS to your iPhone or iPad? It’s easy to find and unhide app purchases directly on an iOS / iPadOS device, though the exact technique will depend on what version of iOS or iPadOS … Read More

How to Remotely Wipe a Mac

Mar 17, 2012 - 11 Comments
Remote Wipe a Mac

In an extreme situation, say a Mac is lost or stolen, you can remotely wipe the Mac of all its data and contents with the help of iCloud. Remotely wiping a Mac goes a step further though and not only removes all data from the computer, but locks it down so that it’s unusable without … Read More

Fix iOS Apps Stuck on “Waiting…” During Download & Install

Mar 17, 2012 - 120 Comments
Apps Stuck on Waiting

If you’re trying to install or download a handful of iOS apps, sometimes an app or even your entire home screen is filled with app icons labeled “Waiting…”. Even worse, sometimes those apps stuck on “Waiting” can be without any of the progress bars moving, with a failure to complete downloading or installing. Don’t sweat … Read More

Create ISO Images from the Command Line

Mar 16, 2012 - 3 Comments
ISO

You can create ISO images from any source disk or data by using the command line in Mac OS X. This isn’t too different than burning them through Terminal, and you can use either the hdiutil tool or dd command. While the command line is generally reserved for advanced users, using it to create ISO’s … Read More

Fix for Personal Hotspot Missing After iOS Update

Mar 16, 2012 - 150 Comments
Personal Hotspot missing

Is Personal Hotspot suddenly missing from iPhone after you installed an iOS update? We’ve heard from a few readers in our comments and through emails that after updating iOS their Personal Hotspot disappeared on the iPhone. The reason for this happening is unclear, but thankfully the fix to bring back Personal Hotspot is usually extremely … Read More

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