Mac users who have switched from the Windows platform may be accustomed to hitting the F5 function key to refresh a web browser, web site, or webpage. The F5 key is used as refresh or reload in most Windows web browsers, so when Windows users switch to Mac they might be wondering what the equivalent refresh button is on the Mac, since hitting F5 on the Mac either usually adjusts keyboard backlighting or does nothing at all.

We’ll cover the F5 key equivalent on the Mac for most web browsers that you’ll encounter, so if you’re a recent Windows switcher you should find this guide particularly helpful.

Read more »

Want to know what the air quality index is at a particular destination? The Apple Maps app on iPhone and iPad can give you this information.

Those who are concerned about air quality will find it useful to know that the Maps app on iPhone and iPad has an optional feature that allows you to see the Air Quality Index (AQI) and accompanying color code directly in the Maps app, but first you must enable the feature, and have a compatible version of iOS system software on the device. This is obviously helpful for planning trips and maps routes for groups who impacted by air quality, and offers another way to see air quality information on an iOS device.

Read more »

Have you ever noticed that dedicated iPad keyboards do not have an Escape key? If so, you might be wondering how to type the Escape key on an iPad keyboard. iPads using an external keyboard, whether it’s an external Bluetooth keyboard, a Smart Keyboard, a brand like Brydge, Zagg, Logitech, or any other dedicated iPad keyboard, will often find there is no Escape ESC key at all. Sometimes there’s either nothing at all, like on iPad Pro Smart Keyboards, or on some iPad keyboards you might find a square button that when pressed will take you to the iPad Home Screen.

So, how do you type the Escape key on an iPad, iPad Air, or iPad Pro keyboard then? Despite often not having an ESC key, you can type it on most iPad keyboards, and we’ll show you several different ways that you can type Escape on iPad using a variety of options.

Read more »

Have you ever wished your Mac would update MacOS system software on its own? If you’d like to take a hands-off approach to updating your system, you can enable automatic MacOS system software updates. With this feature enabled, not only will your Mac automatically check for new system software updates, but it will download and then automatically install the macOS updates too.

Read more »

Have you ever been reading an article in Safari on an iPhone and wished you could be reading the same article on your larger screened iPad instead? Rather than email or message yourself the article link, this is a perfect situation to use the wonderful Handoff feature for. Handoff allows you to quite literally hand an app session from one device to another, and Handoff works with MacOS and iOS devices. For our purposes here, we’ll be showing you how to use Handoff to pass a webpage from Safari on an iPhone to an iPad, but it works the exact same going the other direction too.

Read more »

Need to delete a virtual machine from Parallels or Parallels Desktop Lite? Removing a virtual machine can be necessary when you’re finished using a particular environment, operating system, or VM for any reason, and it’s also common to remove unneeded virtual machines to free up disk space.

Here’s how you can easily delete a virtual machine in Parallels and remove it from the Mac (or Windows PC).
Read more »

Apple has released the second beta versions of MacOS Mojave 10.14.5 and iOS 12.3 for users participating in the beta testing programs. Typically a developer beta arrives first, soon followed by a public beta of the same build.

Additionally, new beta builds are available for tvOS 12.3 and watchOS 5.2.1.

Read more »

Have you ever wanted to know if someone blocked your number from calling them or sending them messages? You may be familiar with the process of blocking calls, messages, and contacts on the iPhone, but have you ever wondered if YOUR number or messages have been blocked? While Apple makes the blocking feature for texts and calls fairly subtle, and blocked calls can even still leave voicemails, there are a few ways you can try to determine if someone has blocked your number on iPhone. Read on to learn more!

Read more »

If you have AirPods and an Android device, you might be interested in knowing that you can use AirPods with Android phones and tablets too. Connecting AirPods to an Android device is pretty straight forward (thought not as seamlessly simple as the iOS setup) and once the two are connected and paired you’ll be able to use them as the wonderfully convenient wireless headphones that they are.

Read more »

Want to change the voice of Siri on a Mac? There are numerous voice options for Siri available, and on the Mac you can change the voice of Siri to be male or female, and you can even change Siri’s accent too.

Read more »

A passcode is used on iPhone and iPad as an authentication method to access and unlock an iOS device, often as an adjunct or alternative to the biometric authentication methods of Face ID and Touch ID. Most iPhone and iPad users enable an iOS passcode when setting up their iOS device, but later some users may decide they would like to change the device passcode to something else.

Changing the iPhone or iPad passcode can be done at any time on an iOS device. You can choose from a variety of different passcode options including using a variation on digit length which lets you change back to a 4 digit passcode or a longer digit passcode, or even change to an alphabetic or alphanumeric password to unlock the iPhone or iPad rather than a numerical passcode. Read on to learn how to change the lock password for an iPhone or iPad.

Read more »

Using SSH, or Secure Shell, is a very common way to establish remote connections to Mac and Linux machines from the command line. If you’re a systems administrator, or if you have SSH enabled on a Mac for another reason, you may eventually need to log off another users ssh connection. There are several ways to end a users ssh connection to a Mac (or Linux box for that matter, these tips apply equally there too), and we’ll cover a few of them.

Read more »

Emoji fanatic Mac users may already be aware of the ultra-fast keyboard shortcut for typing Emoji on a Mac, but did you know the Mail app for Mac OS has another super easy option for adding Emoji to an email message?

It turns out there’s literally an Emoji button in the Mac email client, but much like many users are unaware of the email formatting options in Mail for Mac, the Emoji toolbar is often overlooked too. Not to worry Emoji fans, here’s how to use it!

Read more »

Love it or hate it, but it’s April Fools Day, which means much of the internet is even less believable than normal, full of extra stupid jokes and ridiculous claims. We usually like to offer harmless or goofy pranks as April Fools jokes and this year we’re going to focus on a very simple prank that has worked for desktop computers for ages: setting a screenshot as a screensaver on a Mac or Windows PC.

This prank works because the screen saver will look like the users desktop, except of course it can’t be interacted with, and assuming they have a locked screen saver password set, then the computer will initiate that login prompt with any mouse cursor movement. Of course simply entering the login information will end the prank immediately, which is why it’s mostly harmless but can certainly cause a bit of confusion in the interim.

Read more »

Want to turn off iPhone for whatever reason? Newer iPhone models have a different method of shutting down the device to turn off the iPhone compared to earlier model devices. This article will show you how to turn off iPhone XS Max, iPhone XS, iPhone XR, and iPhone X.

Read more »

Screen Time is a feature on iPhone and iPad that tracks device usage for apps, websites, categories, and more, taking real-time usage data to report back just how long particular apps and types of apps are being used. You can even use Screen Time to block certain apps, websites, or even block and limit entire categories of apps and sites like social networking. Screen Time is quite helpful, and takes over the place that the Restrictions feature in iOS once held. But what if you’re going to use an app, or use Screen Time, and you’re presented with a Screen Time passcode screen, but you don’t know the Screen Time passcode?

For some users who updated to the latest iOS operating system, they may wander into Screen Time settings on an iPhone or iPad to discover that a passcode is already set, but they’re not sure what the Screen Time passcode is.

Read more »

The Notes app for iPad has a variety of handy keyboard shortcuts available for usage within the app when a keyboard is connected to the device.

If you’re a Notes app user and use an iPad with an external Bluetooth keyboard, a keyboard case, or with an Apple Smart Keyboard, you may find this collection of keyboard shortcuts to be helpful to your workflow.

Read more »

If you’re a Safari user who recently updated iOS or MacOS, you may occasionally run into a “Not Secure” message near the top of the screen when viewing some websites or while browsing the web.

That ‘Not Secure’ text is simply a notification from Safari that the webpage or website is using HTTP, rather than HTTPS. This is also reflected in the URL prefix of a website, for example https://osxdaily.com vs https://osxdaily.com

Read more »