Some Mac users may run into a situation where the Messages app for Mac shows phone numbers instead of contact names, despite those contacts numbers being saved and associated with names. Typically you can resolve this issue with a few simple solutions, which we’ll get into here.
Apple is well known for being a privacy centric company and building tons of security and privacy features into the iPhone and iPad to control things like location tracking and app tracking, but some big name app developers are coming up with creative ways to pry details about your device. One such crafty method of device snooping uses the push notification system to gather system information about your iPhone.
The Stocks app for iPhone, Mac, and iPad, now offers a super convenient way of knowing when a companies upcoming earnings reports will be, and, even better for you earnings season enthusiasts, you can add those earnings report dates directly to your calendar immediately from the Stocks app. Because who doesn’t love listening in on an earnings call for a company you may or may not own stock in? Tongue-in-cheek aside, many people have jobs, careers, hobbies, or personal interest in tuning into earnings reports for any number of reasons, and so knowing when these dates are and having them on your calendar can be very important.
This earnings report trick works the same with Stocks app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and here’s how it works.
Do you need to convert images to webp format from the Mac? Converting images to WebP offers tremendous file size savings, often compressing an image up to 70% without losing image quality, so it’s understandable why many Mac users and web developers, designers, and workers would wish to convert and compress images into WebP format.
While it’s super easy to convert webp to JPG and other images file formats on the Mac, going the other direction is curiously absent at the moment. But with a little command line action, we can easily convert images like JPG or PNG to webp on MacOS.
Amazon is back again with some really great deals, featuring some all-time-low prices on select Apple hardware in specific colors and configurations. From Apple Watch Series 9 from just $309 (down from $399), to M1 iPad Air for just $449 (down from $599), to M2 MacBook Air 15″ 512GB model for $1199 (down from $1499), shop these deals while they’re hot!
The brand new Apple Watch Series 9 is available for $309 in select color options, and $329 in other color options. This is one of the lowest possible prices seen on the Apple Watch Series 9. The deal price is available in a variety of color options and band size combinations, down from the Apple retail price of $399. Apple Watch Series 9 offers a 41mm display, fantastic fitness tracking capabilities, a heart rate monitor, blood oxygen reader, ECG capability, crash detection, fall detection, ovulation tracking, always-on display, GPS, pinch gesture support for interacting with the Apple Watch with just one hand, and a powerful new chip to make the watch faster than ever before.
The M1 iPad Air 5th gen model is available for just $449, down from the $599 retail price. The 5th gen iPad Air features the powerful M1 chip, 10.9″ Liquid Retina Display, 64GB storage, 12MP front and 12MP back cameras, Touch ID, all day battery life, and full compatibility with Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil 2. Available in select color options at this price. This is a great iPad that is quite powerful, and combined with a Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil is quite a package.
The 15″ MacBook Air M2 models feature the powerful M2 processor, 512GB SSD storage, a 1080p FaceTime webcam, Touch ID, backlit keyboard, and a great slim lightweight design, and is available in Silverlight color at a whopping 20% discount.
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Some iPhone users have discovered they are not able to share their location in Messages or Find My, and instead get an error message stating “No Active Device Used For Your Location. You can check your settings in Find My.” This issue, when present, prevents the user from sharing your location, until it has been resolved.
Location sharing is a very popular feature for iPhone users, and so it’s understandable that running into problems with this feature can be frustrating. There are a few different reasons you could encounter this error message when attempting to start sharing your location from Messages on iPhone, so let’s review them and resolve this problem.
Apple has released the first beta version of macOS Sonoma 14.4 to users enrolled in the beta testing programs for Mac system software.
The new MacOS beta arrives alongside new betas for WatchOS, and a few days after the first beta of iOS 17.4 debuted.
No major new features are expected in macOS Sonoma 14.4, but it’s assumed that new Emoji icons will be included in the system update since those arrived with iOS 17.4 beta, alongside a standard array of bug fixes and security enhancements.
MacOS Sonoma is a perfectly great operating system for most Mac users, and many feel its variety of features and general enhancements offer improvements over its predecessor. However, not all MacOS Sonoma users are thrilled, and some people feel their Mac is slower after updating to MacOS Sonoma 14, experiencing more sluggish general performance, unresponsiveness to some apps, seeing more beachballs and wait cursors, and just a general perception that their computer is now slower.
If you are experiencing performance issues with macOS Sonoma and feel like your Mac is slower since updating, take a look a these tips to correct the problem.
Apple is running a commercial for Apple Vision Pro that shows off the devices appearance when wearing, and the interface the wearer sees overlayed onto the world.
The ad shows people interacting with various spatial computing interfaces and apps, from general computing tasks, to watching movies, making FaceTime video calls, interacting with panoramic photos, all while the song “Dreamer” by Roger Hodgson plays in the background of the advertisement.
Would you believe that one of the original promotional videos for the Macintosh featured none other than Microsoft’s Bill Gates?!
In this fun video from 1984 you’ll see a young Bill Gates from Microsoft expressing his enthusiasm and extolling the virtues of the Macintosh computer. The famous rivalry between Apple and Microsoft hadn’t quite heated up yet, but that would begin soon after, and the rest is computing history.
Watch the full video embedded below, it’s just under 3 minutes long.
The Mac turned 40 this week, and if you’re still on an Apple history kick, there’s a fun website that’s worth exploring called Mac40th.
Mac40th.com showcases every desktop and portable Mac ever made by Apple in a continuous stream of Macs, displayed in random order. But it’s not just Macs, interspersed with tons of photos, you’ll find embedded Apple commercials and promo videos to watch too.
Apple has released the first beta versions of iOS 17.4 and iPadOS 17.4 to users enrolled in the developer beta testing programs for iPhone and iPad system software.
There are some significant changes for European users arriving in betas for iOS 17.4, including changes to the App Store, and adding the ability to install apps through alternative app stores in order to comply with new European Union regulations. The functionality to install apps from alternative app stores is expected to be limited to the EU, and is unlikely to expand to the Americas or elsewhere (without similar government regulations from those other regions, anyway).
Aside from the region-specific EU compliance changes, iOS 17.4 and iPadOS 17.4 beta also includes new Emoji icons, and a variety of small changes and improvements to things like Apple Music and Podcasts.
You can download and build a Windows 11 installer ISO from a Mac with the help of a free MacOS app called CrystalFetch.
CrystalFetch is a very simple app that will download and build a Windows 11 ISO or Windows 10 ISO for either Apple Silicon or Intel X86 platforms, that you can use to install Windows 11 or Windows 10 onto a Mac, or install into a virtual machine.
This offers an alternative solution for getting Windows 11 on a Mac that is different from running Windows 11 on ARM Macs with a VHDX file obtained by Microsoft and ran with UTM.
A fair number of iPhone and iPad users are reporting that using AirPrint is no longer working on their device since updating to iOS 17 and iPadOS 17, or a later update to those operating systems (like iOS 17.2, etc).
For many users impacted by this problem, the AirPrint compatible printer disappears after you select it for printing, preventing you from printing to the AirPrint printer from the iPhone or iPad.
This has been reported with HP printers, Canon printers, Brother printers, Epson, Samsung, Kyocera, Xerox, and many other brands, suggesting the issue is not necessarily specific to a single brand of printer, but instead is likely a compatibility issue or bug relating to compatibility with the printers, and perhaps either software running on the devices, or even something specific to the latest operating systems for iPhone and iPad.
We’re going to offer some troubleshooting steps for fixing issues with AirPrinting with iPhone and iPad, so read along and let’s get this taken care of.
Amazon continues to offer some great hardware deals on Apple gear, so if you’re in the market it’s a great place to check first. Why pay full MSRP when the same hardware is discounted? From deals on AirPods, iPads, Apple Watch, MacBook Air 15″… let’s take a look!
The 15″ MacBook Air M2 models feature the powerful M2 processor, SSD storage, a 1080p FaceTime webcam, Touch ID, backlit keyboard, and a great slim lightweight design, and is available in popular color options at a nice discount.
AirPods are discounted up to $70, depending on the model you choose. The 2nd gen starts at $99, while AirPods Pro start at $189.
The brand new Apple Watch Series 9 is available for $329 again, which matches the all-time-low price that was briefly available during the holiday shopping season. The deal price is available in a variety of color options and band size combinations, down from the Apple retail price of $399. Apple Watch Series 9 offers a 41mm display, fantastic fitness tracking capabilities, a heart rate monitor, blood oxygen reader, ECG capability, crash detection, fall detection, ovulation tracking, always-on display, GPS, pinch gesture support for interacting with the Apple Watch with just one hand, and a powerful new chip to make the watch faster than ever before.
(Note: these Apple Watch models appear to continue having the Blood Oxygen Sensor enabled, despite the ongoing legal battle with Apple and a patent holder regarding that technology)
Don’t need all that Apple Watch Series 9 has to offer? Apple Watch SE 2 is a great budget choice, featuring a 40mm screen, fitness tracking functionality, sleep tracking, crash detection, a heart rate monitor, and is water resistant, making it a fantastic entry-level Apple Watch for just about anyone.
The iPad 9th generation with a 10.2″ display is available for just $249, which is a $70 discount from the Apple MSRP. The iPad 9th generation features a 10.2″ Retina display, A13 Bionic chip, 64GB of storage, 12MP front camera, 8MP back camera, Touch ID on a Home Button, wi-fi, great battery life, and is available in Space Gray and Silver color options. This is a fantastic deal on a great entry-level iPad, whether it’s for a gift, more casual use, kids, parents, grandparents, couch surfing, kitchen use, or whatever else you may want to use an iPad for.
The M1 iPad Air 5th gen model is available for just $499, down from the $599 retail price. The 5th gen iPad Air features the powerful M1 chip, 10.9″ Liquid Retina Display, 64GB storage, 12MP front and 12MP back cameras, Touch ID, all day battery life, and full compatibility with Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil 2. Available in Starlight, Space Gray, Purple, Blue, or Pink. This is a great iPad that is quite powerful, and combined with a Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil is quite a package.
Save $100 on the latest generation iPad Mini in select colors:
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Instagram is one of the most popular social networks out there, focused around the sharing of photos and videos, and people use it for myriad reasons. While iPhone and Android users can install Instagram on their device through the respective app stores, Mac users who want to install Instagram have a different route entirely.
If you’ve wanted the ability to use Instagram on the Mac as an application, you’ll be happy to know that the new web apps feature in Safari makes it possible. With this trick, you’ll have Instagram in your Mac Dock like any other application, and when clicked it will launch the Instagram web app as an application running on your Mac.
The Macintosh computer, which has played a pivotal role in shaping personal computing and design principles throughout the entire tech industry, has turned 40 years old.
Many Mac users like to use a feature that automatically hides and shows the Dock on MacOS, appearing when your cursor goes to the bottom of the screen, and disappearing when your cursor leaves that area. This offers a more minimalist experience and user interface, and it also optimizes screen real estate, by hiding the Dock. Mac laptop users in particular may find this useful, where display space is more coveted.
Let’s take a look at how you can set the Dock on MacOS to automatically hide and show. This particular guide applies to macOS Sonoma & Ventura, the newest Mac operating systems.
