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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Apple has released the final version of iOS 9.3 today for all compatible iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices.

iOS 9.3 includes several new features, including password protected Notes app, a night time color adjustment mode called Night Shift, multi-user support for iPad in education environments, and a variety of other minor changes.

Multiple bug fixes and security improvements are also included, making iOS 9.3 a recommended update to users running a prior version of iOS 9.

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Apple has released watchOS 2.2 for Apple Watch, and tvOS 9.2 for Apple TV. The new software updates include a variety of feature improvements and bug fixes and are recommended to users of Apple Watch and Apple TV to install on their respective hardware.

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As expected, Apple has released a new 4″ iPhone SE and 9.7″ iPad Pro today at their March 21 event. The devices offer hardware improvements compared to prior models available at the same screen size, and should be compelling offerings to individuals seeking a 4″ iPhone or 9.7″ iPad.

Additionally, Apple has unveiled a few new Apple Watch band styles, and a plethora of software updates to nearly their entire hardware lineup, including iOS 9.3 for iPhone and iPad, OS X 10.11.4 for Mac, watchOS 2.2 for Apple Watch, and tvOS 9.2 for Apple TV.

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Photo Booth is the fun picture taking app in Mac OS X that takes selfies with the built-in FaceTime camera, some people use it for diaries or a mirror, and there are many goofy effects that can be applied to the images which turns Photo Booth into a fun house app of sorts. While users can always access the Photo Booth pictures from the app itself (and drag and drop them out of the application), many Mac users may wish to have direct access to the Photo Booth raw image files.

We’ll show you how to access the Photo Booth pictures, as well as where all Photo Booth images are located on the Mac.

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The amount of time it takes to complete a Time Machine backup depends on a variety of things, like the amount of data being backed up, the destination drive speed, the speed of the internet connection if the backup is going to a Time Capsule, whether it’s the initial backup or a delta backup of changes made, amongst a variety of other factors. You’ll typically get an idea of how long a Time Machine backup should take to complete after it has ran a few times on a Mac, so if you discover suddenly that the Time Machine backup is taking an extremely long time or is backing up unusually slow, follow the troubleshooting steps below to speed things up.

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The Apple TV has a Settings app complete with a myriad of options that are more than sufficient for most users to customize and tinker with their device, but did you know there is a hidden Advanced Settings section in tvOS as well? This is a little known feature that seems to contain options that are mostly pertinent to Apple internal testing, but there are a few potentially useful user-facing settings as well.

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Most iPhone and iPad users will use the same Apple ID and iCloud account repeatedly on the same device and across other devices, as they should, since that is how they are designed to work. Nonetheless sometimes you may buy an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch on the used market and discover that someone has made and used so many different Apple ID or iCloud accounts on the device that an error message shows up when going through the device setup, saying that the device is “no longer eligible” to make an account. The exact error messages are “Account Limit Reached: This device is no longer eligible for creating a free iCloud account” and “This device is no longer eligible for creating an Apple ID”.

If you see an “Account Limit Reached” or “no longer eligible” message when trying to setup an iOS device, or when trying to create an account on a specific iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, then here is what you can do to fix it.

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As Instagram continues to grow with pictures of just about anything imaginable, you may find yourself browsing and searching for photos of, well, anything. Instagram keeps track of the searches you make in the app, and when you return to the search tab and search field, you’ll find your prior search history is visible. That’s helpful for quickly returning to a prior search, but sometimes you may want to clear that search history in Instagram as well.

Fortunately, Instagram allows deletion of the prior searches, so you can wipe away the search history all of those iffy keywords, hashtags, and user names that you don’t want showing up in the search section of the app anymore.

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