How to Delete a User Account in Mac OS X

Jun 8, 2016 - 8 Comments

How to delete a user account on Mac OS X

Macs with multiple user accounts sometimes need to delete a user account. Maybe you no longer need a specific user account, or you’re removing an old login, or just cleaning house, whatever the case, it is easy to remove a user from Mac OS X.

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By Paul Horowitz - Mac OS, Tips & Tricks - 8 Comments

Show Only Unread Emails in Mail for Mac OS X

Jun 8, 2016 - 15 Comments

Mail app icon

Managing large numbers of emails can be time consuming, but one way to help tackle email on the Mac is by setting up an Unread Emails Only inbox. This allows Mac users to easily view unread mail messages without having to scroll through already read emails, since only the new or unread emails will be visible. The great thing about this approach is that it spans all inboxes and email accounts that are setup within Mail for Mac, though you can certainly specify accounts if you wanted to.

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

How to Reload bash_profile, zsh profiles from Command Line

Jun 7, 2016 - 4 Comments

refresh profile command line

For anyone making customizations to their command line appearance, prompt, adding aliases, a new PATH, setting environment variables, or otherwise changing their bash_profile, bashrc, zshrc, and related shell profiles, it’s helpful to know how to quickly reload the profile.

Many users simply launch a new shell or open a new terminal window, but there is no need to do that, there’s a way to directly refresh the profile in use thanks to the source command.

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By Paul Horowitz - Command Line, Tips & Tricks - 4 Comments

8 New Visually Impressive “Shot on iPhone” Commercials Now Airing

Jun 6, 2016 - 10 Comments

Shot on iPhone commercials

Apple is running eight new “Shot on iPhone” ads, demonstrating the impressive recording capabilities available with the latest iPhone cameras.

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By Paul Horowitz - News - 10 Comments

Fix for Retina MacBook Pro 13″ Freezing Issue Offered by Apple

Jun 6, 2016 - 72 Comments

Freezing MacBook Pro

A number of Mac users have discovered that their computers are freezing at random after updating their computers to OS X 10.11.4 and sometimes with OS X 10.11.5 as well. The problem is rather annoying as the Mac becomes entirely unresponsive and requires a forced reboot intervention, though disabling WebGL in Safari seems to help with Safari usage. Apple has now acknowledged the freezing issue with 13″ Retina MacBook Pro models and has offered a support document aimed at addressing the problem.

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By Paul Horowitz - Mac OS, News, Troubleshooting - 72 Comments

Beta 2 of OS X 10.11.6, iOS 9.3.3, tvOS 9.2.2, and WatchOS 2.2.2 Released

Jun 6, 2016 - 2 Comments

Mac OS X and iOS betas

Apple has released updated beta versions for their entire operating system lineup, including OS X 10.11.6 beta 2, iOS 9.3.3 beta 2, watchOS 2.2.2 beta 1, and tvOS 9.2.2 beta 2. All beta updates likely aim to resolve bugs and offer minor enhancements, which is typical with point release system software.

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By Paul Horowitz - News - 2 Comments

Use a Website as a Screen Saver on Mac

Jun 5, 2016 - 13 Comments

Use a webpage as a screen saver on Mac

Have you ever wanted to have a web site or web page used as a screen saver on Mac OS X? Well you can do exactly that with the help of a free screensaver called WebViewScreenSaver, which allows Mac users to add URLs to serve as the content of a screen saver whenever it’s activated on the Mac. This is handy for a variety of obvious reasons, and it’s quite easy to setup.

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By Paul Horowitz - Customize, Mac OS, Tips & Tricks - 13 Comments

Get Directions to Home or Work with iPhone and 3D Touch

Jun 4, 2016 - 15 Comments

Maps and directions

One of the more helpful features of the Maps apps for iPhone is the ability to get directions to your home or directions to your work, from your current location. This is a great feature for the directionally challenged in particular, but it’s also helpful if you’re exploring a new part of a city or state, or if you just want to go on auto-pilot and don’t want to overthink which turns to make to get home or to the office.

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By Paul Horowitz - iPhone, Tips & Tricks - 15 Comments

Customize the Background Color, Font, & Text Size in Safari Reader for iPhone or iPad

Jun 3, 2016 - 9 Comments

Safari Reader customized before and after example in iOS

Safari Reader is a nice feature of the Safari web browser for iOS and Mac OS X that allows users to simplify the look of a webpage or article to just focus on the text and image content. Now with the latest versions of iOS, you can customize the look of Safari Reader too, and choose a background color, a font, and even adjust the font size of onscreen text on any webpage on the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. This makes Reader particularly great for users who are reading text on webpages and find it too difficult to read, or perhaps they want to implement their own ‘night mode’ and reduce the bright white glare of the text background.

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By Paul Horowitz - iPad, iPhone, Tips & Tricks - 9 Comments

Preview Files in Trash with Quick Look for Mac

Jun 2, 2016 - 7 Comments

Preview a file in Trash with Quick Look for Mac

Have you ever noticed that once a file is in the Trash, you can’t open it or view it? If you try to open or use an item that is within the Trash in Mac OS X, you’ll get a dialog warning that says “The document ‘name’ can’t be opened because it’s in the Trash. To use this item, first drag it out of the Trash.”

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By Paul Horowitz - Mac OS, Tips & Tricks - 7 Comments

Fixed iOS 9.3.2 for iPad Pro Released

Jun 2, 2016 - 10 Comments

iPad Pro colors

Apple has released an updated version of iOS 9.3.2 for users of iPad Pro 9.7″ models.

The prior iOS 9.3.2 release for that specific model line of iPad Pro suffered from a few problems that could potentially make the device unusable with an “Error 56″ message. While the issue didn’t impact all iPad Pro owners, Apple ended up pulling iOS 9.3.2 for iPad Pro 9.7” as they worked on a resolution, maintaining the iOS 9.3.2 update to be available for all other iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch models.

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By Paul Horowitz - iPad, News - 10 Comments

How to Enable a Hidden Emoticon Keyboard on iPhone

Jun 1, 2016 - 11 Comments

How to Enable the Emoticon keyboard on iPhone and iPad

iPhone users regularly enjoy the Emoji keyboard with all the fun icons, faces, and little pictures, but before Emoji came around there were Emoticons, which are basically little text drawings of faces and actions using regular characters on a keyboard. Emoticons are a little bit more complex to type out than hitting a simple Emoji key, but if you want to use Emoticons there’s a great hidden Emoticon keyboard on the iPhone and iPad waiting to be enabled, with a huge array of complete emoticon faces and strings waiting for use.

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By Paul Horowitz - iPad, iPhone, Tips & Tricks - 11 Comments

How to Edit Sidebar in iTunes 12.4

May 31, 2016 - 8 Comments

Edit the iTunes sidebar

The latest versions of iTunes have a universally visible sidebar with media library, devices, and playlists available to choose from. Some of the library sorting options visible in the sidebar may not be useful to all users however, so with a little effort you can edit and customize the sidebar in the newest iTunes releases.

You can also choose to hide the sidebar in the latest versions of iTunes, or show it again if you accidentally made the sidebar invisible.

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By Paul Horowitz - iTunes, Tips & Tricks - 8 Comments

How to Set Default Email Address in Mail for Mac OS X

May 31, 2016 - 12 Comments

Mail app icon

Mac users who have multiple email accounts setup with the Mail app may wish to change or set the default email address that is used throughout Mac OS X. This can help to prevent accidentally sending an email from the wrong email address, which should be particularly helpful for those who juggle work and personal email accounts within the Mail app.

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By Paul Horowitz - Mac OS, Tips & Tricks - 12 Comments

How to Setup 2-Factor Authentication on Apple ID for Extra Security

May 30, 2016 - 8 Comments

Set Up Two Factor Authentication for Apple ID Security

This guide will walk through setting up two-factor authentication for an Apple ID. Two-factor authentication requires that whenever a user is logging in to an Apple ID from a new untrusted device, not only must the proper password be entered but a secondary security ID code must be entered as well, which is typically delivered to a trusted device or through text message to a trusted phone number. This offers an additional security layer and significantly enhances security for Apple ID and iCloud account use, because essentially it means that even if someone were to know the password for an Apple ID, unless they had access to a pre-determined trusted device, they would not be able to log in to that account.

Not all users will want to use two-factor authentication for Apple ID and iCloud access, but for the security conscious it can be a good idea as it offers added protection to the account and related data. Consider that an Apple ID typically contains data about a users address book and contacts, notes, iCloud mail, credit card information, iCloud keychain, iCloud backups, iCloud photos, purchase history, and much more, and you can quickly see why the Apple ID is something to protect well, which two-factor authentication does.

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By Paul Horowitz - Security, Tips & Tricks - 8 Comments

How to Disable iPad Video Overlay (Picture in Picture)

May 28, 2016 - 6 Comments

Disable Persistent Video Overlay Picture in Picture mode on iPad

The Picture in Picture video mode on iPad is one of the better multitasking features of the device, but some users can find it to be distracting, and some may find themselves entering into the Picture in Picture (PIP) mode accidentally as well. While it’s easy to close a PiP window to make the video go away, if you don’t use the feature, you can easily disable the persistent video overlay (Picture in Picture) ability in iOS, which will prevent inadvertently accessing it.

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

How to Use iPhone Keyboard as Trackpad with 3D Touch

May 27, 2016 - 9 Comments

Using the iPhone Keyboard as a Trackpad with 3D Touch

Navigating around text blocks in iOS is typically done by hunting and pecking with a finger to tap in between precisely the write characters or words. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that approach and that’s what we have all become used to on the iPhone, but the 3D Touch enabled devices offer a much better way by transforming the keyboard into a trackpad.

Not only can you move around text with the keyboard as a trackpad trick, but you can select text on iPhone with this 3D Touch trick as well. Let’s review how this works.
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By Paul Horowitz - iPhone, Tips & Tricks - 9 Comments

How to Download Photos from iCloud to Mac or Windows PC the Easy Way

May 26, 2016 - 259 Comments

How to download photos from iCloud

One of the most common questions regarding using iCloud and iCloud Photo Library is how to download photos from iCloud once they have been stored there. This is a deceptively simple question, and we’re going to push aside any of the complexities of downloading pictures from iCloud Photo Library within Photos app on the Mac, iPhone, and iPad, and instead we’ll show you the single most direct method of downloading a picture from iCloud to a computer, since that is usually what people are looking to do.

We’ll also show you how to download all photos from iCloud, as well as single pictures or just a group of selected photos.

You have a photo on iCloud, and you want to download that photo your Mac or PC – simple, right? Yes, but it’s done a bit different than you may expect, as we’ll show in the walkthrough here.
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By Paul Horowitz - Tips & Tricks - 259 Comments

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