April Fools is a great time to play innocent pranks on fellow iPhone users, and one which nearly never fails to stump someone in a harmless manner is the infamous “iPhone is disabled” wallpaper prank. Of course this isn’t limited to the official prank holiday of April first, and you can use it to fool someone any day.
Did you know your Mac has built in DTMF tones? It sure does! It’s likely part of the ability to make phone calls from a Mac via the iPhone, but putting aside the obvious utility of the tones existence, it’s also kind of a fun retro throwback to the caveman days of using dial tones to make calls. If you want to use one of the tones as a ringtone, text tone, or maybe you just want to relive the glory days of multifrequency signaling, we’ll show you how to access the raw files and play them too.
Apple has released iOS 9.3.1 for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, the new version directly addresses the problem where tapped links would crash or freeze Safari, Messages, Mail, and other apps on iOS devices. This update is particularly important to install if you have been experiencing the URL crashing problem as it fixes the bug and stops tapping links from crashing the device, though users who haven’t been impacted by the bug may find it less urgent to update.
Force Click and Force Touch (now called 3D Touch) are able to perform secondary actions by detecting pressure placed on a Mac Trackpad, but some users find that it can either be too easy or too difficult to activate. Fortunately the Mac provides a simple way to adjust the amount of touch pressure necessary to trigger Force Click in Mac OS X, so if you’d like to switch it up you can easily change this setting on a compatible Mac, MacBook, or MacBook Pro.
Apple has released a new developer focused version of Safari, called Safari Technology Preview. The new browser is aimed at more advanced Mac users who want to “get a sneak peak at upcoming web technologies in OS X and iOS” and test those experimental technologies on websites, web applications, and with Safari extensions and plug-ins.
Many Microsoft Office for Mac users may find themselves needing to gain access to the Outlook Temp folder, which is where everything from attachments are stored, to cached version of items that are actively being worked on but that are launched from Outlook as an attachment. For example, if someone emails you a report as an attachment, you open it and are working on it in Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and you save it, this saved document which began as an Outlook attachment will usually be in the Outlook Temp folder.
A large number of iPhone and iPad users are having problems with links not working in Safari, Mail, or Messages after updating their devices to iOS 9.3, and in some cases with iOS 9.2.1 as well. In the worst situations, not only do tapping on links not work, but the Safari browser actually crashes when a URL is attempted to be accessed in one of the impacted apps.
Update: Apple has released iOS 9.3.1 to fix the link crashing bug, available to download now. This is highly recommended to update and install rather than using the troubleshooting steps below.
Apple has released a new patched build of iOS 9.3 for users impacted by the Activation Error bug and presumably some of the other problems impacting some iOS 9.3 devices. The version remains as iOS 9.3 but includes a new build number, arriving as 13E237, and is available for older devices, including iPad 2, iPad mini, iPad mini, iPad 3, iPad 4, iPad Air, iPad mini 2, iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPod touch 5,1. The build is not available for iPhone 6s or iPhone 6 models, or new iPad Air 2 or iPad Pro models because they were not impacted by the activation issue.
Have you ever noticed that most politicians speak in remarkably simplified plain language? This is intentional, with most communicating far below their educational achievements and speaking somewhere around a fourth grade level, and sometimes a bit higher. The idea is to make concepts simple, with the message easy to understand, easy to remember, and easy to digest. While politicians may do this to improve comprehension or even pander, it’s actually harder to write (and speak) with a simplified vocabulary than you may think. That’s where this fun little free Mac app comes in, it aids in that simplification process, and it’s actually pretty useful for anyone looking to improve their communication!
While most Mac users have been able to update to OS X 10.11.4 without an issue, some users are experiencing a few particularly frustrating issues with the update. The most common issues are; Mac apps are unable to launch and the apps report they are damaged, Mac application icons show as generic and are unable to open or fail to open, the Mac suddenly freezes for no apparent reason, or a particularly alarming scenario where all applications and user files are missing from view, making it appear as if the Mac removed all of its own files.
An array of problems have appeared for some users updating various iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch models to iOS 9.3, so much so that Apple has actually pulled the iOS 9.3 update for most older model hardware. This means that many devices will simply have to wait for a newer fixed version if they haven’t updated to iOS 9.3 yet, but obviously that’s not too helpful if you already updated a device to iOS 9.3 and it is now rendered inoperable with an activation error, verification problems, iCloud issues, Mail and Safari link failures where a link is clicked but does not open, or some of the other annoyances that have popped up with the software update.
Have you ever wondered why the battery icon on iPhone is yellow sometimes? Wonder no more, because the yellow battery icon means the iPhone is in Low Power Mode. We’ll explain a little bit about this and how it works, and how to fix it if you want your green battery back.
The Notes app is an excellent place to store clips of useful information, and now that you can password protect notes within the Mac app, you can securely keep more personal information within the Notes app of Mac OS X as well.
This is a great feature available to new versions of the Notes app, and it allows for a convenient place to maintain all sorts of data you want kept in an additional locked layer away from prying eyes. Whether it’s a little diary, a list of login details or email addresses, insurance information, or whatever else you can imagine that is best left with a password to protect it and lock out peepers, the Notes app for Mac offers this functionality.
A jailbreak for Apple TV 4 has been released by the Pangu group. The jailbreak applies to the 4th generation Apple TV running tvOS 9.0 or 9.0.1, and will not work on the newly released tvOS 9.2 version.
Live Photos are basically a still photo that comes to life as a short video, they’re a neat feature that can be captured by newer model iPhone cameras, and now the Messages app on the Mac can view these little moments if they’re sent your way.
While iOS 9.3 has several new features and is a notable improvement over prior iOS 9.x releases, some users may wish to downgrade iOS 9.3 back to iOS 9.2.1 for whatever reason. Downgrading to the prior release is possible for a limited time, so if you have any interest in doing this you’ll want to move quickly before Apple closes the signing window for the earlier firmware version.
Most Mac users update their system software through the Mac App Store, which is quick, easy, and efficient. There is absolutely nothing wrong with updating Mac OS X through the App Store, and that approach is best suited for the majority of users, but many advanced Mac users and systems administrators rely on what are called Combo Updaters to update Mac OS to the latest versions available. Additionally, combo updates can be helpful for troubleshooting a failed Mac OS X update, and running through one can often remedy a broken or borked update attempt.
Apple has released OS X 10.11.4 for Mac users running El Capitan. The new version supports Live Photos in Messages app, password protected Notes, and includes compatibility support for iOS devices running iOS 9.3.
Additionally, multiple bug fixes, security improvements, and overall improvements are included in OS X 10.11.4, making it a recommended update for Mac users running a prior versions of OS X El Capitan. Aside from El Capitan, Mac users running prior versions of OS X will also find a security update available which is recommended to install.
