Apple quietly updated the MacBook Pro line today via press release, offering faster processors and improved speeds at up to a 40% increase in performance. Apple also told select members of the press that the updated MacBook Pros include improved keyboard materials that aim to reduce keyboard failures.

Additionally in regards to keyboards, Apple is expanding their keyboard service repair program for all butterfly design keyboard equipped MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and MacBook computers.

Read more »

Want to toggle Do Not Disturb mode on the Mac with a keyboard shortcut? You can easily enable a custom keyboard shortcut to turn on or off Do Not Disturb mode in MacOS, and we’ll show you how to set it up.

Do Not Disturb mode on the Mac is one of the best features you can use if you want to focus on a task, and not be distracted by the myriad endless notifications and alerts that pop up on the Mac. Enabling and disabling the feature with a keyboard shortcut offers a quick way to toggle the feature off or on as quick as possible and at any time.

Read more »

Apple has issued the second beta version of iOS 12.4 to users enrolled in the iPhone and iPad beta testing programs. Both developer beta and public beta builds are available.

Read more »

The data contained within Health app on iPhone can be saved and exported for other uses. Perhaps you want to export Health app data to use in another health or fitness app, importing it to elsewhere, or maybe you want to use the raw Health data for your own purposes.

Exporting Health data from iPhone results in a zip archive that contains the raw data as gathered by Health app in XML format. This exported Health data will include any data stored or gathered by the Health app and any associated devices, including any Medical ID data, the native iPhone step counter and distance tracker, any data from an Apple Watch, and any data gathered from any third party devices that are syncing to Health app, like a smart scale or blood pressure monitor. Read no to learn how to export Health data from iPhone.

Read more »

If you use Spotify for streaming music, over time you may discover the Spotify app increases local cache storage, which can sometimes grow quite large. These audio cache files can make the Spotify app appear to take up a lot of storage space on an iPhone or iPad. But fortunately Spotify offers a simple functionality hidden within the app that allows you to easily delete all local cache from Spotify, which is a very helpful tool to free up some storage space.

Read more »

The Gmail web email client is very fancy, but some Gmail users may wish to use the much more simplified Basic HTML mode for Gmail. Basic HTML Gmail strips away the fancy actions, features, and functions as well as JavaScript from the default Gmail web view, turning Gmail.com into a much more simplified webmail experience.

The main advantage to using Gmail in Basic HTML mode is that it’s stripped down considerably and thus very fast loading with lower resource requirements, so if you’re on a lower bandwidth internet connection it can make using Gmail a better experience. Of course there are other reasons users may want to use Gmail in HTML mode as well, including for improved compatibility with specific web browsers, for using Gmail with notably older browsers or older operating systems, to simplify the interface appearance to be closer to old-fashioned Gmail, or to avoid JavaScript altogether, amongst many other reasons.

You can switch Gmail to Basic HTML view and back to Standard Gmail View at any time, this article will show you how to do that.

Read more »

If you’re a Mac user who relies on iCloud Drive for data syncing and cloud storage, you might appreciate knowing that you can enable an optional iCloud Status indicator in the Mac Finder.

The iCloud Status indicators in Finder can tell you if a file or folder is only in iCloud, on the local Mac, ineligible for iCloud, waiting to upload, transferring, and more. Note these iCloud Status indicators are different from progress indicators, though you can also check the progress of iCloud file uploads and downloads in Mac OS if desired.

Read more »

If you use a hardware keyboard with iPad you may have noticed that auto-correct and some other keyboard settings that applied to iOS are no longer taking effect. This is because the iPad has separate settings for the software keyboard onscreen, and a hardware keyboard if one is connected to the iPad, and thus disabling autocorrect in iOS for the screen keyboard won’t carry over to the hardware keyboard, like a Smart Keyboard, iPad keyboard case, or external keyboard. Thus, to turn off autocorrection on iPad with a physical keyboard, you must adjust a separate setting.

We’ll show you how to disable auto-correction on iPad when using a hardware keyboard with the tablet.

Read more »

Apple has released the first beta version of iOS 12.4 and macOS Mojave 10.14.6 to users enrolled in the eligible beta testing programs.

The release of iOS 12.4 beta 1 and macOS 10.14.6 beta 1 comes just a day after the wide public release of the iOS 12.3 update for iPhone and iPad users, and macOS 10.14.5 update for Mac users.

Read more »

Let’s say you’re in a Messages conversation and you want to quickly send someone your current location from iPhone. In this scenario you might go to the Messages conversations Info / Details section and use the “Share Current Location” feature, but did you know there’s an even faster way to instantly share your current location from the iPhone Messages app that can be accessed by typing alone?

This is about as easy as it gets, and sending someone your current location this way is initiated entirely by typing a very short phrase on the iPhone within the Messages app.

Read more »

Using an iPad with a hardware keyboard provides access to several keyboard shortcuts to quickly take screen shots on iPad. These keystrokes offer a consistent and quick way to take a screenshot on iPad without your fingers having to leave the keyboard to use the other approaches of the Home / Power button iPad screenshot method or the Power / Volume button approach to taking screenshots on iPad Pro.

Read more »

Apple has released MacOS Mojave 10.14.5 to all Mac users running the Mojave operating system. The macOS 10.14.5 update includes several bug fixes along with AirPlay 2 support for AirPlay 2 compatible smart TVs.

Mac users running MacOS High Sierra or Sierra will also find a Security Update available for those prior system software releases.

Separately, Apple also released iOS 12.3 update for iPhone and iPad, alongside tvOS 12.3 for Apple TV and watchOS 5.2.1 for Apple Watch.

Read more »

Apple has released iOS 12.3 for iPhone and iPad. The final stable version of iOS 12.3 includes a handful of bug fixes, along with AirPlay 2 support and a redesigned TV app.

Separately, Apple has released macOS Mojave 10.14.5 for Mac, along with watchOS 5.2.1 for Apple Watch, tvOS 12.3 for Apple TV.

Read more »

Rarely, you may attempt to unzip a zip archive and come across an error that states “End-of-central-directory signature not found. Either this file is not a zipfile, or it constitutes one disk of a multi-part archive. In the latter case the central directory and zipfile comment will be found on the last disk(s) of this archive.” This tutorial will attempt to resolve the zip file “End of central directory signature not found” errors when attempting to decompress an archive.

Read more »

For a variety of reasons, an Apple ID may become disabled. Usually this corresponds with an obvious message like “Apple ID Disabled” or “This Apple ID has been disabled for security reasons” or some other notification that you are unable to sign in to the locked Apple ID because it has been disabled. This can be seen when trying to login to an Apple ID on iPhone, iPad, Mac, iCloud.com, or any other place you might attempt to login to an Apple ID. Obviously a disabled Apple ID is a big deal because nearly the entire Apple universe is accessed through an Apple ID, including iCloud, Music, iTunes, App Store, and much more, so you’ll understandably want to regain access to an Apple ID to re-enable it and fix the issue.

If your Apple ID is disabled and you having trouble logging into the account, read on to learn how to troubleshoot and resolve this problem. We’ll cover three different approaches to fix a disabled Apple ID.

Read more »

Don’t want to see dozens of holidays on the Calendar for Mac? You can easily disable the Holiday Calendar in the Mac Calendar app. By turning off the Holiday Calendar, you will no longer see the broad array of religious holidays, cultural holidays, national holidays, political holidays, and other holidays on the Calendar app for Mac, this can be helpful to some users if they find the multi-dozens of holidays do not apply to them.

Read more »

Apple has released iOS 12.3 beta 6 to users enrolled in the beta system software testing program. The sixth beta build comes just a few days after the fifth beta build, and thus far has arrived on its own rather than with new beta updates to the other ongoing beta builds of macOS, tvOS, or watchOS.

Usually a developer beta build comes out first and is soon followed up by a public beta version of the same build.

Read more »

Want to delete the Health app data from iPhone? Some users may decide they want to remove their Health data from iPhone for a variety of reasons, perhaps as a storage conservation mechanism if a user discovers the Health app data is taking up multiple gigabytes of storage on a device, or to clear out old health data, or to remove health data from another person (without clearing the entire phone, for example if you let someone take a jog wearing your Apple Watch), for privacy, among other purposes to to delete Health app data.

This article will show you how to delete data from the Health app on iPhone.

Read more »