Apple has released a bevy of new beta system software versions for users enrolled in the Apple beta testing programs. iOS 11.4.1 beta 1, macOS 10.13.6 High Sierra beta 1, watchOS 4.3.2 beta 1, and tvOS 11.4.1 beta 1 have all been released together.

The new beta builds come right after iOS 11.4 update was released as a final version for iPhone and iPad users, along with final updates to watchOS 4.3.1 and tvOS 11.4.

Read more »

Apple has released iOS 11.4 for iPhone and iPad. The latest iOS software update focuses primarily on the inclusion of AirPlay 2 support, some HomePod updates, and the addition of Messages in iCloud support, though there are a handful of other features and bug fixes as well.

The full release notes are included below, along with a quick tutorial on how to update your iPhone or iPad to iOS 11.4, along with iOS 11.4 IPSW download links for more advanced users.

Separately, Apple also released tvOS 11.4 for Apple TV and watchOS 4.3.1 for Apple Tv. Additionally, macOS High Sierra 10.13.5 has been released along with Security Updates for Mac users.

Read more »

Want to know what the UV index is of your current location, or somewhere else? Your iPhone can tell you the UV Index of anywhere, and you don’t even need any additional apps.

All you need to use is the default Weather app for iPhone, and with that you can check the UV Index of anywhere in the world, or even right where you’re located at that moment.

Read more »

If you’re a Gmail user and you’re going to be away from email, on vacation, or out of the office for a while, you may want to set an automatic email responder message directly through Gmail.

Auto-Responders, “Out of Office” responders, and Vacation Responders work much like the names imply; when they’re enabled and someone sends you an email, they will get an automatic reply from your email account with a message of your choice, usually saying something like “I’m away from my office right now, please call my cell phone or contact someone else for assistance.”

This tutorial will walkthrough how to configure and setup an automatic email responder for a Gmail account, it can be set from any web browser on any device, including Windows PC, Mac, Linux, iPhone, iPad, Android, Chrome OS, or anything else you can access the Gmail website from.

Read more »

Airports can be hectic, and just about every traveler knows the stress of visiting an airport they have never been to before and trying to quickly navigate the maze of terminals to find their gate so that they can board a plane on time. A great trick that can ease the stress of travel and help you plan your travels better is to use Apple Maps on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, to virtually navigate within an airport beforehand.

With Apple Maps airport exploration mode, you can explore inside airports to find terminals, boarding gates, baggage claims, check-in counters, security checkpoints, bathrooms and toilets, restaurants, shops, and more. This makes travel planning a bit easier and takes some of the stress out, particularly if you’re visiting a huge airport, or one you’re just unfamiliar with.

Read more »

Using Portrait Mode to achieve a depth effect on photos may be limited to certain iPhone models with dual-camera lenses, but a variety of third party apps are bringing similar portrait mode photography features to all other iPhones too. Instagram is one of them, with a “Focus” feature that captures pictures using a similar depth effect as Portrait Mode does.

While Instagram Focus mode isn’t perfect, it may be good enough for many iPhone users who want to have a depth effect with a blurred background behind their subject.

Read more »

Advanced Mac users that utilize the command line may occasionally encounter a “command not found” error message when attempting to run something in the command line. The “command not found” error in the Terminal can surface for several reasons in the command line of MacOS and Mac OS X, as we’ll discuss here, and of course we’ll offer solutions to these issues.

Read more »

The latest versions of iTunes no longer default to creating an iTunes Library XML file, which was an iTunes file that allowed various other apps to interact easily with an iTunes library, and could also serve as a basis for rebuilding an iTunes library if that were ever needed.

Despite “iTunes Music Library.xml” files no longer being created in iTunes on Mac OS or Windows by default, you can actually still generate an iTunes Library XML file if it is needed by another app or for some other purpose.

Read on to learn how to create an iTunes Music Library.xml file in the latest versions of iTunes for MacOS or Windows.

Read more »

Apps on the iPhone and iPad are frequently updated with new features, various enhancements, security adjustments, and other components. If you don’t stay on top of updating iOS apps, you’ll quickly be inundated with dozens of available app updates waiting to be installed for your iPad and iPhone apps.

Fortunately there’s a simple way to handle a barrage of awaiting app updates, because you an easily update all apps at once in the iOS App Store.

Read more »

Photos app for the Mac imports images and manages pictures by automatically moving the files into organized folders within the apps dedicated package file. While this file container is not intended to be user facing, many advanced Mac OS users like to have access to the original master files rather than solely relying on the Photos app for image management.

One easy method to access those files is by using the Show Original File trick to jump to the Finder location of the master file of a particular image, but if you find yourself using that often, or frequently needing access to the master image files from Photos app in Mac OS, we’ll show a quick and easy way to instantly access those master images from anywhere in the file system in Mac OS.

Read more »

The iOS Control Center is a great feature allowing iPhone and iPad users to quickly access screen brightness controls, volume controls, camera, wi-fi and bluetooth toggles, Do Not Disturb mode, and so much more thanks to the ability to customize it. But many iPad users, and some iPhone users too, may discover that Control Center is not working from the locked screen of their devices. Try as you might, swiping up from the bottom of the iPad or iPhone screen, Control Center just won’t swipe up to show itself. Don’t worry, it’s probably a simple fix.

Read more »

Have you ever found that apps are disappearing from your iPhone or iPad? Maybe you hadn’t used a particular app in a while but you know for certain you downloaded it to your iOS device, but when you go looking for that app, it’s missing.

While it’s certainly possible that you deleted the iOS app and forgot about it (or someone else did, and didn’t inform you), there’s another more likely possibility as to why apps might be seemingly disappearing from an iOS device out of the blue, and it’s actually a feature of iOS system software.

Read more »

Signal is the encrypted messaging app that is used by many privacy conscious individuals on various platforms, but the Signal app defaults to showing a message preview on the locked screen of an iPhone or iPad, which may be convenient but it’s not particularly private. Given that Signal is typically sought out by users specifically for privacy and/or security purposes, some users may wish to have the Signal message previews not show up on the locked screen of an iPhone or iPad.

This article will show you how to hide the Signal message previews from the locked display of an iPhone or iPad. Signal users will be able to choose to have the message previews display on the locked screen when the device is unlocked, or to never show the Signal message previews at all regardless of the lock status.

Read more »

Have you ever wondered what to do if you delete a system file from a Mac? Or maybe you’re wondering how you can get those system files back after they were deleted from the computer? While most Mac users should never modify system files in Mac OS and Mac OS X, some do anyway, and in that process of digging around in system contents, it’s possible to delete a system file or system folder either unintentionally, accidentally, or intentionally but without knowing what exactly the impact would be. Well, spoiler alert; usually the impact of deleting system files from Mac OS is that something that should work on the Mac suddenly no longer works. So what should you do in such a situation? How can you get back a system file that you have deleted from Mac OS? What should you do if you deleted an entire system folder from the Mac? This article attempts to answer that question.

Read more »

Another day, another iOS beta! Apple has released iOS 11.4 beta 6 to those iPhone and iPad devices enrolled in the iOS beta testing program. This build arrives a few days after beta 5 of iOS 11.4 was released for the same devices.

If you are currently beta testing iOS, then iOS 11.4 beta 6 is available to download now from the Software Update mechanism found within the Settings app.

iOS 11.4 beta appears to mostly focus on minor bug fixes and enhancements, though testing of the Messages on iCloud feature is included as well. iMessages in iCloud aims to improve syncing of iMessages across devices by maintaining all Messages and iMessage content directly in iCloud. Previously, Messages in iCloud was being tested in prior iOS builds but was removed before they shipped tot he public.

The current final stable builds of macOS and iOS are currently versioned as iOS 11.3.1 for iPhone and iPad and macOS 10.13.4 High Sierra along with Security Update 2018-001 for Macs.

It’s fairly routine for Apple to issue several beta releases of system software before issuing the final version to the general public. Most assumptions are that the final release of iOS 11.4 (and macOS High Sierra 10.13.5 for that matter) will arrive sometime near WWDC 2018 on June 4.

If you want a podcast to automatically stop playing after a designated period of time, the little-known Sleep Timer feature in Podcasts for iPhone or iPad is for you. Much like the name implies, Sleep Timer will play a podcast until a specified time completes, or when the current episode is done playing, and then the podcast automatically stops playing.

Sleep Timer on Podcasts for iOS is great for people who like to listen to podcasts before sleep, while going to bed, while exercising, on a consistent commute, or performing other tasks where it’s appropriate to end a podcast in a determined amount time.

Read more »

Some Mac users really enjoy full screen mode for apps and windows, so much so that they might want to make Mac apps open in full screen mode automatically.

While there is no system wide setting in Mac OS to make apps default to opening in full screen mode, there is a workaround trick that will allow many apps to open directly into full screen mode on the Mac.

Read more »

Emails often contain remotely loaded content, and most email clients, the Mac Mail app included, will default to automatically loading those remote images and remote content into an email. This is convenient and desired by many as it makes HTML and rich emails appear as intended, including things like HTML signatures.

But loading of remote content in email messages can also be undesirable for some Mac users, because remotely loaded content can also be used by an email sender to serve as a read receipt, or even as an attack vector by unscrupulous types (as we see right now with the efail GPG scare). Finally, some Mac users may want to disable remote loading of content in emails because it can reduce bandwidth usage, which can be helpful for cellular plans and low speed internet connections.

We’ll show you how to disable loading of remote content found in email messages within the Mail for Mac app.

Read more »