Macs no longer have internal DVD and CD-RW drives, but for Mac users who still need to use optical discs the Apple SuperDrive offers an external all-in-one USB solution that can read and write both CD and DVD discs, all you have to do is plug it into a USB port on the Mac and Mac OS will detect the SuperDrive. But that’s Mac OS, not Windows, and many Mac users also use Windows PC or Windows operating systems, so wouldn’t it be nice to use that Apple SuperDrive in Windows too?

But SuperDrive does not always work with Windows PC right away however, and sometimes the Apple SuperDrive either doesn’t function as expected, won’t accept a disc, or is not properly recognized in Windows, whether running natively on PC, or a Mac through Boot Camp, or a virtual machine either.

Whatever the scenario, if you’re trying to use an Apple SuperDrive with Windows and it’s not working as expected, try the steps below to get the SuperDrive functioning in Windows.

Read more »

As you likely know by now, Control Center is the customizable action screen on iOS that allows you to quickly adjust brightness, volume, wi-fi, bluetooth, music, AirDrop, access a flash light, Do Not Disturb mode, and much more. But if you have an iPhone X, than accessing Control Center will be different than what gesture you have long become accustomed to with other iPhone and iPads.

Read more »

If you’ve been using and creating Animoji on iPhone and sharing them with other people, you may have noticed that Animoji are saved and shared as video files in the .mov file format. But Animated GIF files are exceptionally popular, as they loop endlessly on any device or operating system they are received on, and plus animated GIF files can be easily posted and shared on the web and other social services. Thus you might be interested in converting Animoji into GIF format, which you can do directly on iPhone.

We’re going to focus on using a free iOS app called Shortcuts (Workflow) to convert the Animoji into GIF, because once the initial setup is complete it becomes quite easy to re-use.

Read more »

iPhone and iPad users can now customize Control Center to better suit their needs. For example, if you frequently use Voice Memos, Notes app, Stopwatch, Magnifier, or the Alarm feature, you can add those to Control Center for ultra-fast access from anywhere in iOS. Or if you never use the Flashlight feature or Camera via Control Center, you could remove those from Control Center too.

Customizing Control Center is a great way to personalize the quick-access controls which are available from anywhere in iOS, here’s how it works.

Read more »

Have you ever wanted to setup an auto-responder eMail message in the Mac Mail app? Autoresponders allow you to set an “out of office” auto-reply that gets sent automatically as a reply to any inbound email to the Mac Mail app. This is great solution for situations where you’re out of the office, away from a desk, or otherwise away from email for a while, whether it’s a vacation or maybe you just hate replying to emails. Whatever the reason, all inbound emails will get an automated response with the message of your choice.

Read more »

Apple has released the third beta version of iOS 11.3, macOS 10.13.4, and tvOS 11.3, to users engaged in the operating system beta testing programs.

Read more »

Apple has released iOS 11.2.6 for iPhone and iPad. The software update is intended to fix a bug that causes a specific Telugu character from crashing an iOS device. Additionally, the small system software update patches a bug where some third party apps are not connecting to external accessories.

Separately, Apple has also released macOS 10.13.3 High Sierra Supplemental Update, tvOS 11.2.6, and watchOS 4.2.4, with each of those updates also patching the same corresponding bug.

Read more »

Apple has released a Supplemental Update for macOS High Sierra 10.13.3.

The small system software update includes a patch aimed at addressing an unusual bug that could potentially cause a Mac app to unexpectedly crash when receiving a particular Telugu character.

Additionally, Apple has released iOS 11.2.6 along with updates to watchOS and tvOS to address the same bug for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple TV.

Read more »

The built-in iPhone speaker is fairly loud as is, but if you want your iPhone speaker to sound even louder than you’ll likely enjoy this tip.

By adjusting iOS Music equalizer settings, you can boost the sound output volume of music playing from the iPhone (or iPad and iPod touch) speakers, giving the impression of louder music.

Read more »

Safari for Mac can quickly give you stock price quotes for any ticker symbol right from the address bar, offering yet another way to keep track of equities for those who like to follow the day-to-day ride of the stock market.

Of course you can just google or web-search for a ticker symbol too, but a Safari feature called Safari Suggestions offers an ultrafast way of getting the price of a stock without having to search the web, all you need is the ticker symbol.

This is a super simple trick, here’s how it works:

Read more »

The Chrome web browser now allows you to mute any website completely. This is great if you often visit a website that frequently has auto-playing videos or auto-play audio that you’re constantly having to mute, or find and pause – a fairly common situation with many news and sports websites – since you can mute the entire site once, and you’ll then never hear another sound from that website again for as long as the mute is active.

Read more »

The iOS Files app and iCloud Drive offer a file system of sorts for the iPhone and iPad. One frequently used capability of file systems is the ability to rename files and folders as necessary, and as you might expect, the Files app for iOS offers this functionality too.

Read more »

If you ever find yourself wanting to disable Touch ID or Face ID authentication methods on an iPhone or iPad, you can easily temporarily disable the biometric authentication in iOS by using a simple Siri command.

With Touch ID or Face ID temporarily disabled, the iPhone or iPad must then be unlocked with a passcode instead of either a fingerprint or face scan.

Read more »

Have you ever wished you could disable Private Browsing mode in Safari for iOS? Using Private Browsing mode in Safari on iPhone and iPad is simple and you can toggle in and out of it at ease at any time. But what if you don’t want Private Browsing mode to be available at all? What if you want to completely remove the Private Browsing feature in iOS so that it’s impossible to use and not merely an option in Safari? That is what this tutorial will show you; how to completely disable Private Browsing in iOS.

Read more »

Want to save a web page as a PDF on iPad or iPhone? Generating PDF files of webpages and web articles is now easier than ever before in iOS, thanks to a new obvious “Create PDF” feature that is available in modern system software releases.

Read more »

Modern versions of Mac OS offer a super-fast and easy way to reveal invisible files on a Mac, all you need to use is a keyboard shortcut. With a simple keystroke, you can instantly show hidden files on a Mac, and with another strike of the same keyboard shortcut, you can instantly hide the hidden files again too. This is by far the fastest way possible to show and hide invisible files on a Mac. You won’t need to use the defaults command to show hidden files (though it still works), instead you can just use the handy keyboard shortcut anywhere in the Finder or a file access dialog.

Read more »

If you have an iPhone or iPad with the third party YouTube app installed, you may notice that when you click to open a YouTube link from Safari or elsewhere, you’ll discover he YouTube app opens to watch the video. This happens even if you want to watch the YouTube video on the YouTube website in Safari for iOS.

There are a few workarounds to this situation, each of which will allow you to stay on the YouTube website in Safari, so if you’re annoyed with the YouTube app launching (or trying to open the page in the app) when watching YouTube videos from an iOS device, read on to learn your options.

Read more »

Do you remember WinAmp, the old funky ’90s music player for Windows and Mac? If you were a computer user in the late 1990s during the dot com boom, you probably used WinAmp to play your MP3 library, maybe even running it alongside Napster. At that time the quirky media player felt very modern and cutting edge, and was so ubiquitous that it was kind of like the iTunes of the era. If you had a computer and an mp3 collection, you probably used WinAmp.

Well if you’re feeling some computing nostalgia for WinAmp, you’re in luck because an enterprising developer has recreated a fully functional WinAmp2 clone entirely in Javascript, and that means you can run good old WinAmp today in your web browser on a Mac, Windows PC, or even iOS device.

Read more »