Some Mac users may see a notification alert pop-up from Mac OS X in the corner of their display with a message stating “Optimizing Your Mac – Performance and battery life may be affected until completed.” While there aren’t any additional details offered in the notification, there is a “Close” button, which will dismiss the alert. Typically this optimizing message appears after a system software update has installed, logging in to a new user account, or if the Mac has been rebooted after a long period of not being restarted. So, if you see this alert message, what’s going on and what should you do?

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Having to constantly enter the Apple ID password to download free apps from the Mac App Store is kind of annoying, but thanks to a new settings option you can stop the authentication requirement for free apps while still maintaining it for paid app downloads and for in-app purchases in Mac OS X.

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The latest versions of iOS Mail app include a “Trash All” function that allows you to quickly delete all emails in an inbox on any iPhone, IPad, or iPod touch. This is the fastest way to delete all emails in an inbox from an iOS device, and can be helpful if you want to clear out all locally stored mail messages from iOS, whether for spring cleaning purposes, because you don’t need the emails anymore, or perhaps to free up space taken up from a hoard of emails on an iOS device.

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Notes app includes a variety of enhanced features for iOS and OS X users, but one that is particularly useful is the ability to make checklists easily in the app. As you probably guessed, the checklists are interactive, so you can check things off your own created lists or notes easily to help you keep track of progress or tallies, essentially turning a regular note into a To Do list.

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Apple has issued the second beta versions of iOS 9.3, OS X 10.11.4, tvOS 9.2 beta 2, and WatchOS 2.2 to users participating in the developer release testing programs for iPhone, IPad, iPod touch, Mac OS X, Apple TV, and Apple Watch. The new builds continue to improve features and enhancements on the respective operating systems, and include multiple bug fixes.

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Apple has released tvOS 9.1.1 for Apple TV 4th generation models, the small point release update arrives as build 13U717 and primarily focuses on bug and security fixes, but also includes a new Podcasts app for Apple TV.

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While iOS is usually a pretty flawless experience without many bugs or glitches, one issue that crops up for some iPhone and iPad users is especially annoying; their iPhone keeps restarting randomly. Seemingly out of nowhere and at random, the iPhone restarts itself, and you’ll see an Apple  logo before the device boots back up and is usable again. This can happen occasionally sometimes, and in the worst situations, it happens often. If you encounter the frequent iPhone restarting issue, there is a consistently reliable solution to resolve this problem once and for all, and fortunately it’s not particularly challenging. Follow the troubleshooting steps below and you’ll fix the random restarting problem in short order.

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Ever received a junk iMessage to an iPhone or iPad from someone you don’t know, or that is clearly spam? With new versions of the Messages app, there is a simple way to report the spammy iMessage sender as such to Apple, which helps them to detect and reduce junk bulk iMessages.

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More services and features rely on location to function properly on Mac OS X, but whereas iOS will default to showing you a little compass arrow icon when location is accessed and used, MacOS doesn’t show comparable location usage by default in the latest versions.

For users who want to know when Mac OS is requesting access and using location data, you can toggle an optional setting that, much like iOS, will display a compass location icon in the menu bar of Mac OS.

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A hidden Lockdown folder is created by iTunes which stores certificate UDID data for iOS devices that are synced to a specific computer. These lockdown certificates are required to be able to successfully sync an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with a computer, but in some specific occasions, a user may need to manually access the lockdown folder contents. Additionally, for security minded users, accessing the lockdown certificates can allow for access to a device on a different computer, simply by copying the necessary plist files to a different machine, a situation which has obvious security implications.

In some rare occasions, a user may need to manually intervene, manage, access, remove, and otherwise modify the lockdown folder contents, deleting or copying files from the directory in order to regain the ability to sync an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with the computer again. We’ll show you where the lockdown folder is located in Mac OS X and Windows, and how to reset it if need be.

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The Activity app on iPhone gathers much of the physical activity, pedometer, and health and fitness data from Apple Watch and presents it in an easy to read format. But the info found in Activity app is not limited to just the iPhone and Apple Watch, because you can share Activity progress easily with others through the app as well.

Whether you’re feeling particularly proud about a fitness level for a day, or shameful from a serious couch potato effort, it’s easy to share through messages, email, or the major social networks, here’s how:
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The newest version of iOS supports Mail Drop, a feature which allows users to upload a large file to iCloud for a recipient to download, rather than attempting to attach the large file to the email itself. This is great because it allows you to send files up to 5GB through email, when it’s not unusual for any file larger than 20MB to get bounced by the recipient email server. You’ll find Mail Drop is particularly well suited for sending large HD video files from an iPhone or iPad to elsewhere, but it obviously has other uses as well.

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Apple has released iOS 9.2.1 for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. The small update arrives as build 13D15 and includes bug fixes and security updates, but does not appear to include any new features or changes.

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Apple has released OS X El Capitan 10.11.3 for all Mac users, the final version is said to improve the compatibility, security, and stability of OS X and contains bug fixes and security improvements for the Mac operating system.

Additionally, Apple has also released security updates for Mac users running OS X Yosemite and OS X Mavericks.

Apple recommends that all Mac users install the appropriate updates for their version of OS X.
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Siri Suggestions is a feature of modern versions of iOS that recommends contacts, apps, nearby locations, and news, right from the Spotlight search screen. Siri Suggestions aims to be intelligent and learn from user behavior on the iPhone and iPad, offering contacts and apps depending on usage patterns, location, and the time of day, and while this feature is appreciated by many iOS users, some don’t use it, and others may find it unnecessary, slow, or unhelpful.

If you’d like, you can turn off Siri Suggestions in the Spotlight search screen of iOS easily. Doing so still allows you to use Spotlight just as before in prior versions of iOS, including searching the local device, the web, and Wikipedia, it simply removes the suggested section from offering results before searching in Spotlight.

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In celebration of MLK Jr Day, Apple has honored Dr. Martin Luther King Junior with a prominent tributary homepage takeover. The tribute is complete with a picture of Dr King, featuring one of his most famous and powerfully inspirational quotes overlaid the image; “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?'”

Truly one of the greatest quotes (and greatest questions), so why not give yourself some inspiration to do good for others by making that moving quote as your wallpaper?

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Modern versions of the Safari web browser for Mac OS X offer a hidden feature that allows users to clear web caches from the browser without having to dump all other browsing history, cookies, searches, or other website data. This is a really useful feature for web workers and developers who routinely need to clear browser cache for pages and websites, which forces the browser to pull new data from the server(s) being accessed, but it can also be helpful for some troubleshooting situations in Safari as well.

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The Mac has long been a great platform for emulating older gaming consoles, and now the best emulator for OS X has gotten even better, as OpenEmu includes support for two other retro gaming greats; the Nintendo 64 and Playstation 1.

PS1 and N64 support is in addition to the vast console compatibility already included with OpenEmu, so if you’re a fan of emulators and old school games, you won’t want to miss this.

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