How to Delete a Picture or Video from Messages on iPhone & iPad

Feb 10, 2016 - 14 Comments

Messages Want to delete a photo from a message on iPhone or iPad, but without removing an entire message conversation in iOS? With the trick we will show you, you can selectively delete a single picture or video from the Messages app in iOS, without interfering with the rest of the conversation or with the other texts, pictures, or movies. This is perfect for deleting a single embarrassing or private picture while keeping the other messages in tact, but keep in mind it only removes the image from your iOS device and not the recipients.

Going further, you can use a various of this tip to delete multiple pictures or videos from a message conversation as well, and it’s quite easy to use. Read along to learn how to remove a photo or movie from Messages in iOS.

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By Paul Horowitz - iPad, iPhone, Tips & Tricks - 14 Comments

How to Turn Off Video Autoplay on Twitter for Mac OS X

Feb 9, 2016 - 5 Comments

Twitter icon The newest versions of Twitter for Mac and iOS default to automatically playing videos and gifs that are found within a feed. This can lead to the Twitter app becoming a stream of continuous noise and nuisance, or worse, as any video (uncensored or not) starts playing itself without user input. Whether you think this is good or bad likely depends on what is being shared by what and who you follow on Twitter, but sometimes even the most work-oriented and focused Twitter accounts can wind up seeing awful NSFW and NSFL autoplay content thanks to the auto-play feature. Additionally, it can waste bandwidth and be a major distraction, so perhaps autoplay video is best turned off.

Fortunately, just like you can disable video autoplay on Twitter for iOS, the Mac Twitter app has an option to disable the annoying video autoplaying feature in the OS X client as well. Here is what you’ll want to do:

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By Paul Horowitz - Mac OS, Tips & Tricks - 5 Comments

How to Reinstall OS X on a Mac

Feb 9, 2016 - 36 Comments

Reinstall OS X system software on a Mac

Though we’d all rather everything works as intended with our Macs, occasionally something goes really haywire and OS X becomes either royally messed up or unusable. In these circumstances, sometimes the only solution to get things working again is to reinstall OS X system software (or, if you have a recent safe backup made, restoring from Time Machine is often valid as well).

We’ll cover how to reinstall Mac OS X system software only with Recovery Mode, this reinstalls the most recently available version of OS X that is (or was) actively running on the Mac. If performed correctly as described, applications and user data will be preserved and not be modified at all, since this approach only reinstalls the operating system and system files.

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How to Add RSS Feeds & Sites to Apple News in iOS

Feb 8, 2016 - 20 Comments

Manually add RSS and websites to News app in iOS The News app is bundled in modern versions of iOS, accessible from the home screen as a standard app icon and from the Siri Suggestions screen in Spotlight under the News section on an iPhone or iPad. While News app includes a handful of curated Apple-approved sites, users can customize the app on their own by adding websites they like, and also use the News app as an RSS reader. This allows you to add just about any site or feed to News app yourself, including great sites like this one.

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By Paul Horowitz - iPad, iPhone, Tips & Tricks - 20 Comments

OS X 10.11.4 Beta 3, iOS 9.3 Beta 3, WatchOS 2.2b3, tvOS 9.2b3 Released for Testing

Feb 8, 2016 - 5 Comments

OS X El Capitan 10.11.4 beta 3 and iOS 9.3 beta 3

Apple has released an array of new beta operating system builds, including the third beta versions of OS X 10.11.4 beta, iOS 9.3 beta, WatchOS 2.2 beta, and tvOS 9.2 beta 3. Each release includes bug fixes and feature enhancements for their respective hardware, along with a few new features.

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By Paul Horowitz - Apple TV, Apple Watch, iPad, iPhone, Mac OS, News - 5 Comments

How to Reduce Transparency on Apple Watch

Feb 7, 2016 - 3 Comments

Apple Watch

The Apple Watch user interface uses transparency in the Glances screens and elsewhere to add a subtle layering effect to the appearance of things on display. This is mostly an eye-candy effect, and while it’s quite subtle some users may wish to turn transparency effects off in WatchOS.

By disabling transparency on Apple Watch, it will improve the contrast of certain on screen elements, and may offer some other mild improvements to performance and battery life as well, simply because less processing power is used for drawing display elements.

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By Paul Horowitz - Apple Watch, Tips & Tricks - 3 Comments

The Mac “Startup Disk Almost Full” Message and How to Fix It

Feb 6, 2016 - 34 Comments

Mac Startup disk is almost full error message, here is how to fix it

Many Mac users will inevitably see the “Your startup disk almost full” error message show up in OS X, with a vague note to delete some files in order to make more space available on the Mac. While you can disregard the message for a little while, it will usually come back again shortly, and often soon after the startup disk will actually fill up and start causing problems in Mac OS X. Thus, if you see the “Your startup disk is almost full” error message in Mac OS X, you should address the issue before it becomes a problem.

We’ll cover some easy tips on how to quickly figure out what’s taking up the disk space on the Mac, as well as how to clear out storage capacity in order to resolve an almost full Mac.

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How to Read a Message Without Sending Read Receipt on iPhone with 3D Touch

Feb 5, 2016 - 6 Comments

A read receipt in Messages for iOS

The iOS Messages app defaults to sending what is called a “read receipt” when an iMessage is opened and read within the application. That Read Receipt feature can be helpful for some conversations but it’s not always desired for every message, and though disabling Read Receipts for Messages in iOS is certainly one option that many iPhone users choose, another trick is available to those with 3D Touch equipped iPhone screens, thanks to the ‘peek’ and ‘pop’ features of such devices.

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By Paul Horowitz - iPhone, Tips & Tricks - 6 Comments

How to Switch Multiple Instagram Profiles & Accounts on iPhone Easily

Feb 4, 2016 - 18 Comments

How to add, use, and switch between Multiple Instagram profiles and accounts the easy way

Many Instagram users have multiple IG accounts, perhaps a public facing Instagram profile (often referred to as ‘finstagram’, short for “fake instagram”), a more private Instagram profile (the “rinsta” for ‘real instagram’), a profile for their cat, dog, or turtle, and maybe even a business or work account they use and manage (why yes of course, osxdaily is on Instagram, give us a follow there). For a long time, Instagram users had to log out and back in to a different account profile to switch between multiple Instagram accounts, but now the Instagram app on iPhone (and Android) supports adding multiple accounts, offering a super simple method of switching different accounts directly in the Instagram app without any add-ons or hassles.

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By Paul Horowitz - iPhone, Tips & Tricks - 18 Comments

How to Turn Off Contacts Found in Mail from Mac OS X

Feb 4, 2016 - 3 Comments

Mail app icon Modern versions of Mail app for Mac OS X and iOS default to scanning through email content to suggest contacts and fill in additional information about existing contacts. While this can offer a convenient way of easily filling in and uncovering contact information exchanged through emails, it can also frequently be inaccurate, leading to erroneous contact information added to people and entries within the address book. And, because the Mac address book is synced to the iPhone contacts through iCloud, any peculiarities or inaccurate contact information found in email on a Mac will end up on your iOS devices too. Fortunately, it’s easy to disable the contact suggestions when contacts are “found in Mail” in the Mac OS X Mail app client.

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By Paul Horowitz - Mac OS, Tips & Tricks - 3 Comments

How to Make an HTML Signature for Mail in Mac OS X

Feb 3, 2016 - 15 Comments

Mail app icon Many users like to set a signature to be automatically included in their outbound emails, and for those who like to have a stylized and somewhat interactive email signature, they’ll want to create what’s called an HTML signature. An HTML signature allows for different text styling like bolds, italics, font sizes, and, perhaps most relevant to many, the inclusion of things like a phone number or links to websites and social addresses.

For Mac users who would like to create and set an HTML signature, the process is really quite simple in the Mail app of Mac OS. You can actually create however many signatures you want, and even set different signatures for different email accounts. We’ll walk through how to make and set a simple HTML signature in Mail on the Mac.

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By Paul Horowitz - Mac OS, Tips & Tricks - 15 Comments

How to Disable Contacts Found in Mail in iOS

Feb 2, 2016 - 5 Comments

How to Disable Contacts found in Mail in iOS

The latest versions of iOS support a feature which scans a users mailboxes for contacts and contact information. While this feature can be really helpful in potentially identifying callers and contacts, it can also lead to erroneous information being filled in to your address book contact cards, erroneous assumptions about callers, and even improper suggestions in the Mail app. For example, perhaps you’ve opened someones contact card and discovered an incorrect and random entry for email or phone with a “(found in Mail)” text appended next to it – that’s this iOS feature in action.

For users of iPhone and iPad who have discovered this feature and find it to be annoying or inaccurate, or perhaps for those who just don’t like the privacy ideas behind suggesting and autofilling in contact information based on scanning email on the same device, you can disable this feature in iOS completely.

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By Paul Horowitz - iPad, iPhone, Tips & Tricks - 5 Comments

AirDrop Not Showing Up in iOS Control Center? This is the Easy Fix

Feb 1, 2016 - 42 Comments

AirDrop in iOS - how to fix it if it not showing up, or if AirDrop is not working in iOS

AirDrop is a great file sharing protocol for iOS and Mac OS that allows users to quickly and easily send files, photos, contacts, and other data back and forth between iPhones, iPads, iPod touch, and Mac OS X. But sometimes AirDrop doesn’t show up at all in iOS, which obviously prevents the feature from working to share anything let alone find someone to share it with. The AirDrop feature not showing up in Control Center is one of the most common problematic issues with AirDrop in iOS, but usually it’s an easy fix.

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How to Rotate Videos in Mac OS X

Feb 1, 2016 - 26 Comments

How to rotate or flip a video in Mac OS X

Have you ever had a video that was recorded vertically or sideways, and you wish it was orientated either horizontally or otherwise rotated? This is often the case with videos recorded on iPhone or Android phones shot with the notorious Vertical Video Syndrome, but the technique we’ll demonstrate works to flip or rotate any movie, even if it’s not from a smartphone.

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By Paul Horowitz - Mac OS, Tips & Tricks - 26 Comments

iPhone Battery Percentage Stuck Not Updating on 6s or 6s Plus? Here’s a Fix

Jan 31, 2016 - 13 Comments

iPhone battery percentage indicator not updating or stuck, possible fix

Some iPhone users have discovered their devices battery life percentage indicator within the status bar is stuck and not updating, only to then have the percent jump way down, sometimes to the point where the iPhone is about to run out of battery. This seems to primarily impact the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, but a group of users with other devices have seen the issue as well, where the battery gauge doesn’t update.

The cause of the battery charge indicator being stuck and/or the percentage jumping dramatically issue is usually a software bug that Apple has acknowledged, with a fix coming in a future release of iOS software. But in the meantime there are three possible solutions which should remedy the issue if you happen to encounter this.

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By Paul Horowitz - iPhone, Troubleshooting - 13 Comments

Enable Do Not Disturb on Apple Watch Quickly

Jan 31, 2016 - 4 Comments

Use Do Not Disturb to stop Apple Watch notifications temporarily

A large part of the utility with Apple Watch is receiving notifications and alerts which can be quickly sorted through, addressed, or dismissed right on your wrist. While you can quickly clear out the notifications, sometimes you just want peace and quiet instead, and the best way to stop the Apple Watch from tapping your wrist and chiming temporarily is to toggle on Do Not Disturb mode for the watch.

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By Paul Horowitz - Apple Watch, Tips & Tricks - 4 Comments

How to Disable Shake To Undo on iPhone, iPad, & iPod Touch

Jan 30, 2016 - 5 Comments

The Shake to Undo and and Shake to Redo Buttons on the iPhone can be disabled if you don't want to use the shaking undo feature

The iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch uses a physical Shake to Undo and Shake to Redo feature to serve as the equivalent of “undo” and “redo” keys, since unlike the iPad which has the undo / redo buttons on the keyboard, the iPhone and iPod touch lack screen buttons for those functions. And if you’re unfamiliar, yes literally shaking the device will attempt to undo the prior action or typing.

Anyway, while shaking the iPhone or iPad around to undo and redo can be useful, it can also be annoying and activated when you don’t intend to do so, and for users who would like to they can choose to disable the Shake to Undo function in iOS.

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By Paul Horowitz - iPad, iPhone, Tips & Tricks - 5 Comments

How to Use Slide Over Multitasking on iPad with iOS 10

Jan 29, 2016 - 14 Comments

How to Use Slide Over multitasking on iPad

iOS for iPad has dramatically improved multitasking with Spit View dual-pane apps and its counterpart, Slide Over. The Slide Over feature lets you quickly reference, use, and access secondary apps on the iPad without having to enter into full fledged split screen app mode, and without having to switch apps. This feature is great for quickly replying to an email, message, checking Twitter, making a note, or doing quick tasks in another app where you don’t want to lose the primary app focus on an iPad.

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By Paul Horowitz - iPad, Tips & Tricks - 14 Comments

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