Looking for some great gift ideas for this holiday season? We’ve got a collection of tech gadgets and accessories that are sure to be of interest to the geekier folks on your shopping list, perhaps yourself included.
Browse through the list below and see if something catches your fancy. Sure you could always splurge on a snazzy MacBook Pro or anything else at the Apple store at Amazon too…
A Mac can easily be connected to a Bluetooth speaker system, offering a convenient and wireless method of enjoying audio from the computer.
Using a Bluetooth speaker system on a Mac is quite simple, and the only real requirement is that the Mac has Bluetooth actively enabled, and the Speaker system is within range. Beyond that, MacOS is able to connect to virtually any Bluetooth speaker, whether it’s a fancier stereo or a simple portable speaker.
Apple has released an update to Apple Watch that adds significant new health features to the Apple Watch Series 4, including an ECG app and irregular heart rhythm notifications.
The WatchOS 5.1.2 update arrives along with iOS 12.1.1 for iPhone and iPad and MacOS Mojave 10.14.2 for Mac.
Apple has released iOS 12.1.1 for iPhone and iPad users. The freshly updated version of iOS includes a handful of small changes and improvements, along with the usual bug fixes.
Additionally, Apple also released MacOS Mojave 10.14.2 Update, Security Updates for macOS Sierra and High Sierra, updates to Safari, and an update for Apple TV as tvOS 12.1.1, along with watchOS 5.1.2 for Apple Watch with ECG and other new health features.
One of the more notable changes in iOS 12.1.1 is that it moves the FaceTime camera switching button back to a more obvious location during a FaceTime conversation, rather than staying hidden behind various other layers of interface abstraction, as was the case with FaceTiming in prior iOS 12 builds.
Apple has released MacOS 10.14.2 update for MacOS Mojave. The latest software update for the Mac is said to improve the stability, compatibility, and security of Macs, and is therefore recommended for all Mojave users to install.
Mac users not running Mojave will instead find “Security Update 2018-003 High Sierra” and “Security Update 2018-006 Sierra” available for prior MacOS versions, along with updates to the Safari web browser.
Separately, Apple also released iOS 12.1.1 update for iPhone and iPad, along with an update to tvOS for Apple TV, an update for Homepod, and a small update to iTunes for Windows, along with watchOS 5.1.2 for Apple Watch with ECG and health features.
The Mail app for Mac maintains a list of contacts and email addresses with which you have communicated before, and that email address list will be used for the Mail app suggestions and email address completion suggestion lists. This is separate from the regular Contacts address book that is maintained on the Mac, as the email recipients list is limited to the Mail app. Often contacts email addresses change, or perhaps you just no longer need or want a particular contact available in the recipients email list of Mail app, in which case you can delete and remove any unwanted or invalid email addresses from this list in Mail for Mac. And that is what we’re going to focus on here in this tutorial; deleting email addresses from the previous recipients contacts list in Mail for Mac OS.
Group FaceTime video chat allows for up to 32 participants to be engaged in the same active video conference, as long as those people are on a Mac, iPhone, or iPad, running the latest versions of macOS or iOS system software. We’ve discussed making Group FaceTime video calls from the iPhone and iPad before, and so this tutorial is going to cover making the Group FaceTime video calls from a Mac.
Some absolutely stunning space screen savers exist on the latest Apple TV system software versions, presumably captured from the International Space Station, or perhaps some other satellite. Thanks to a third party effort, you can get those gorgeous space screensavers from the Apple TV on a Mac too, in up to 4k video resolution.
If you’d like the keyboard backlighting on a MacBook Pro or Air to turn itself off after the Mac laptop has been inactive for a determined amount of time, you can toggle a system setting to allow for that.
This setting is aimed at specifically the keyboard backlighting, independent of what’s going on with the screen or the Mac itself, which is what makes this different from the general Energy Saver settings that turn off the Mac display or cause a MacBook to sleep after inactivity.
Want to see the size of an app update that is available in the Mac App Store? Some Mac users may be interested in knowing the size of an available app software update before starting to download or install the app update, but the App Store in MacOS Mojave doesn’t openly display the size of available app updates by default. Instead, you’ll need to dig a little deeper to see the size of an app update in the Mac App Store.
Apple has released a new iPhone commercial focusing on using Group FaceTime on the iPhone.
The charming new TV advertisement is somewhat humorous in that it shows various Elvis impersonators singing along together on a Group FaceTime video call from varying locations around the globe, including in hotel rooms, high rises, a stormy boat, a rainy bus stop, and some other forlorn locations.
Apple has released the fourth beta version of macOS Mojave 10.14.2 to Mac users enrolled in the Mojave beta testing program.
Have you ever lost an iPhone somewhere in a house, office, or car, and can’t quite find it? Trying to locate a misplaced iPhone can be frustrating, but if you have another iOS device, Apple Watch, or Mac nearby then you can use Siri to help find a lost iPhone.
With this great trick, you’ll be using Siri to play a sound alert on the lost iPhone to help you locate it and track it down. This is perfect for those routine scenarios of an iPhone getting buried under a seat cushion, falling into a car abyss, or just generally being misplaced.
Your iPhone or iPad may randomly display a Photos alert that says “You have a new memory – On this day (date)” right on the iOS devices lock screen. While some people may be thrilled with having the iOS Photos app resurfacing random photos from the past, other iOS users may be less than enthusiastic about the ‘you have a new memory’ feature putting old pictures in notifications on their devices lock screen.
This walkthrough will show you how to turn off the Photos “you have a new memory” alerts and notifications on iPhone or iPad.
Tags allow you to organize, prioritize, arrange, and label any files or folders on the Mac.
After a file is tagged in the Mac Finder, that file will be marked by the color-coded tag and its associated label, and you can then reference and access those tagged files by whatever assigned tag. You can even tag the same file or folder with multiple different tags, if you want to apply multiple colors or labels to them.
This article will show you how to tag files or folders in the Mac Finder.
Many iPhone and iPad users may wish to connect their device to a Bluetooth speaker, particularly since Bluetooth speakers are becoming increasingly ubiquitous in the world, and the AUX jack / headphone port is no longer included on new iOS devices. Apple seems to be nudging us into the wireless world, and Bluetooth speakers are certainly part of that world.
Connecting an iPhone or iPad to Bluetooth speakers is quite easy, and while it may not be as simple as plugging a cable into a port like a headphone jack, we’ll show you how to quickly connect an iOS device to a Bluetooth speaker device.
If you’re a Hackintosh PC user, you may appreciate knowing that Unibeast now allows you to install and run MacOS Mojave on supported Intel PC hardware.
Like all else involved in the Hackintosh process, this is for advanced users, as unofficially installing MacOS system software onto select supported generic Intel PC hardware is not necessarily simple or for the faint of heart. But it does work!
Looking for a movie to watch? YouTube is putting together a movie streaming service and now offers a selection of free movies to watch online in any web browser or YouTube app.
There are a variety of genres available ranging from comedies, to action, kids movies, documentaries, and you’ll find classics like The Terminator, Rocky, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, All Dogs Go To Heaven, Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Man in the Iron Mask, Hackers, Throw Momma from the Train, and even some more modern documentaries like Jiro Dreams of Sushi and Jesus Camp.
