Modern Macs with new versions of Mac OS (or Mac OS X) default to automatically reboot themselves upon a system freeze. This is a troubleshooting feature that aims to prevent average users from having to initiate a forced restart, since the Mac would simply restart itself if a system freeze were to occur.

While most users should not adjust this setting away from the default auto-restart option, some advanced Mac users may wish to toggle or disable the automatic reboot on freeze function of Mac OS X for some reason or another.

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Though it is an unusual occurrence, a Mac may encounter a broken or damaged EFI partition which typically prevents the Mac from booting and the Mac OS system software from loading. This is usually demonstrated as a boot screen that is stuck on the  Apple logo, sometimes with or without a wait cursor that spins endlessly. The EFI problem is then confirmed by booting into Recovery mode and running Disk Utility, often from an another drive.

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For Google Chrome users, sometimes a webpage may crash with an “Aw, Snap!” error message. This error message frequently prevents a web page from loading at all, and it can certainly disrupt a web browsing session by the page crashing.

The “Aw Snap” error message in Chrome happens for a variety of reasons, but rather than try to diagnose and troubleshoot a specific issue which is likely related to the webpage itself, we’ll focus on 8 specific troubleshooting tips to fix the “Aw Snap” problem so that you can go about your business and keep browsing the web with Chrome. These troubleshooting steps apply to every version of Chrome browser on any operating system, whether it’s Mac OS, iOS, Android, or Windows.

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Misplacing an iPhone is a fairly regular occurrence for many of us, maybe it slipped between the cushions on a couch, maybe you left it in another room, maybe it fell somewhere under the seats in the car, maybe it’s in the backyard, anything is possible. Fortunately for Apple Watch owners, they can use the handy Ping iPhone feature to make their paired iPhone emit a loud pinging sound, making it easy to locate a lost iPhone within earshot.

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If you take a lot of selfies with the iPhone you’ll be pleased to know that you can quickly access every selfie ever taken with the front facing iPhone camera by using a simple sorting album in the iPhone Photos app. Likewise, if you just want to see all the selfies taken by someone else, you can quickly access every selfie taken with the iPhone camera by using the same selfie album on their phone.

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Mac users may find that a system update, installer, or package (pkg) can get completely stuck in a verification sequence, with a pop-up alert that says “Verifying ‘name.pkg’…” while showing the Gatekeeper icon and a progress bar that never updates. The effect is the package or installer won’t run as it never completes verification, making it impossible to install. This is a strange issue that can cause some alarm, because it can happen with both third party packages and installers, as well as updates and packages that come directly from Apple. If you ever run into the package stuck on verifying issue within Mac OS X, we’ll show you how to fix the problem and get the package update to install on the Mac anyway.

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Many users are password protecting Notes on iPhone and iPad, which offers a secondary security layer for especially personal or private data stored within the Notes app. Because the Notes app uses a different password from the general password used on the iOS Lock Screen, and different from the password used by an Apple ID or iCloud account, it can be easy to see how that Notes password may be forgotten or lost. In such a situation, you may wish to reset the Notes app password in iOS, which allows you to set a new password for notes.

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A jailbreak for iOS 9.3.3 and earlier versions back to iOS 9.2 is now available for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. The jailbreak arrives from China through a group called Pangu, who has released similar jailbreaking utilities in the past for Mac OS X and Windows.

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Ever wondered where all the downloaded files go on your Mac? By default, most apps will transfer downloaded files into the user Downloads folder. This applies to all downloads to a Mac made from the web with Safari, Chrome, through AirDrop, or from the many file transfer apps out there.

There are many different ways to quickly find and access the Downloads folder on a Mac, we’ll review some of the fastest methods to get to that folder and find your downloaded files. Additionally, we’ll show you two ways to track down downloaded files that for whatever reason didn’t show up in the Downloads folder.

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Spotlight Search for iOS now has the ability to perform currency calculations and conversions using up to date exchange rates.

This is a handy built-in feature for travelers, anyone who needs to exchange money, and those who work across borders, and it’s built right into the latest versions of Spotlight for iOS on iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

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Beta testers of macOS Sierra can send feedback and bug reports directly to Apple, offering a chance to help shape the future of the Mac operating system. Reporting bugs and offering feature feedback is part of the fun of beta testing (and part of the purpose of the public betas), so if you are running macOS Sierra on a Mac, be sure you take the time to send feedback and report bugs as you come across them.

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Little is dreaded more in the Mac world than the kernel panic, the Mac OS X equivalent of the Windows Blue Screen of Death of yesteryear. While modern versions of Mac OS X don’t display the kernel panic screen like they used to, that doesn’t mean you still can’t have some mischievous fun with a fake kernel panic screen saver.

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Custom email signatures are commonplace, whether they include simple contact details or a complete HTML signature on Mac Mail. A frequent further customization to email signatures is to include an image or logo, which is what we will show you how to create in the Mac Mail app for Mac OS X.

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A strange bug that continues to persist in iOS for iPhone mysteriously causes all phone contacts to suddenly disappear from the Phone app on the device. Most users will never experience the missing contacts bug, but it can be disconcerting if encountered.

This missing contacts bug is not subtle and seems to happen at random, with the Phone app losing the “Favorites” and “Contacts” tabs, as well as the Phone app losing all identifying contact information for existing phone numbers, making every phone number in the recents list appear as unrecognized with no attached contact name, picture, or any other details.

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Now that iOS 10 public beta is available to install for anyone, users can run the beta system software on any compatible iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Of course since it’s beta software, users may encounter bugs, or there may be behavior that is generally unexpected or could be improved upon in the iOS 10 betas.

Rather than just being annoyed, beta testers can do their part to improve iOS 10 by reporting bugs directly to Apple. Additionally, the Feedback app in iOS 10 Public Beta can be used to offer general feedback about iOS 10 to Apple, offering the beta tester the potential to help shape the next major iOS release.

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Some Mac users may wish to downgrade from MacOS Sierra Beta and revert back to OS X El Capitan, this is particularly common if you have found things to be less than stable or otherwise problematic and would like to return to a more stable operating system experience – a fairly common scenario for beta testers.
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Apple has released four new “Shot on iPhone” commercials, some demonstrating the slow motion video recording effect of the iPhone camera with a focus on wildlife, while another demonstrates the time-lapse camera capability.

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Apple has released OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 for Mac users. The minor point release system software update includes small bug fixes and security updates.

Additionally, Mac users running prior versions of Mac OS X system software including Yosemite and Mavericks will find a separate “Security Update 2016-004” release available for their machines.

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