If you have attempted to enable backup encryption in iTunes for an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, you may encounter this fairly frustrating error message; “The password you entered to protect your iPhone backup could not be set. Please try again.” Assuming you do try again, you wind up in an endless loop of entering a password that iTunes refuses to accept for setting for the encrypted backup.

With virtually no lead on how to resolve the error other than an infinite loop of entering passwords and seeing the same dialog again, it’s easy to get frustrated and give up on encrypting the backup, but you don’t need to do that, as it turns out there’s usually a fairly simple solution to fixing this ‘password could not be set’ error message, though it’s certainly not even close to obvious.

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iOS 9 is the next major update for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, bringing a variety of helpful refinements to iOS, some new features, a new system font, a handful of new wallpapers, and a bit more. While many users want to just tap on the update button without doing much else as soon as they see the new version available, we’ll cover a more thorough approach here.

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Knowing an iOS devices serial number is useful for a wide variety of reasons, from checking warranty status, determining if it’s eligible for a free repair from Apple, checking unlock status, checking for iCloud Activation Lock, insurance purposes, repairs, registering a phone for a variety of services, amongst other reasons. We’ll show you how to find the serial number on any iPhone, iPad, or iPod, quickly.

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This weeks featured Mac setup comes to us from Geoff Adams-Spink, a journalist and NGO chairman who has a great dual-desk workstation setup that makes good use of some practical accessibility components and a wide variety of apps. Let’s get to it and learn a bit more…

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If you have ever wanted to know exactly how much time Time Machine is going to take to complete a current backup of a Mac, you’ll likely have noticed the Time Machine menu bar item shows the progress, but not the time before the backup is completed. Instead, if you want to see the time remaining of a backup, you’ll need to dig a little further in OS X.

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Update: iOS 9 has been released, you can download it here or install from the Settings app. This applies to all users, no need to wait anymore!

Now that iOS 9 has reached the GM build, it can technically be installed on any compatible iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch right now, assuming you have the proper iOS 9 IPSW file. Because it’s the final version of iOS 9, installation no longer requires a Public Beta profile or Developer UDID registration, but even so, you shouldn’t update right now.

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As many iPhone owners know, sometimes Siri just starts talking out of no where, intervening into conversations seemingly at random. Well, guess what, Siri is now interjecting itself into official White House press conferences too!

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Apple has released the GM Candidate build of OS X El Capitan for Mac users participating in the Mac Developer Beta and OS X Public Beta programs. Additionally, Apple has announced that OS X 10.11 El Capitan will be available to the general public on September 30 as as free download.

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Apple has released the GM build of iOS 9, alongside the first beta of iOS 9.1. GM stands for Golden Master and represents the final build in a beta software production cycle, matching the final version that has been released to the general public as a download on September 16.

iOS 9 GM arrives as build 13A340, while iOS 9.1 beta 1 arrives as build 13B5110e, both are available now as IPSW downloads though the iOS Developer Center for compatible iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch hardware. Additionally, public beta testers can get iOS 9.1 beta 1 through OTA directly on their devices.

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Apple has released the new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus with significantly revamped internal hardware, an all new 3D touch interaction model, notably impressive camera features, and a new pink rose gold color.

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Apple has released an all new Apple TV with a completely redesigned interface, Siri interactivity for browsing and controlling the device, an App Store, and a new hardware controller with touch capabilities and motion detection.

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Apple has released the all new iPad Pro, which prominently features a large ultra-high resolution 12.9″ display and desktop class computing performance. Additionally, Apple has debuted a new Smart Keyboard for the iPad Pro, and a separate stylus device called Apple Pencil.

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The ability to block people from calling or messaging an iPhone or iPad is an undoubtedly useful feature, but there may come a time where you wish to undo that block. Fortunately, unblocking a contact from iOS is straight forward and easy, so whether you have changed your mind, accidentally blocked someone, or have just decided you want to hear from whoever you blocked again, we’ll show you how to quickly unblock someone. By unblocking a contact or phone number from reaching your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, their attempts to contact you through phone calls, FaceTime, and messages will be resume again as normal.

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Drag and drop is an essential feature on the Mac that is used frequently for interactions in the Mac OS Finder and throughout other applications, so obviously if drag and drop stops working seemingly out of the blue, you’ll want to resolve that fairly quickly. While this is a somewhat rare issue, a failure of drawing and dropping capabilities does happen frequently enough that we get questions about it, and it’s thereby worth covering. You’ll find that if you can’t drag and drop at all, troubleshooting the issue is the same regardless of whether you use a trackpad or mouse with a Mac, so read on to resolve the issue.

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Whether you’re a big fan of the actual Apple Watch itself or not, you have to admit the default watch face screen is rather beautiful and well designed. Not only does that watch face screen look great on a wrist, but it also happens to look fantastic on the Mac too, so if you’re a fan of clocks and minimalist screensavers, don’t miss this nifty Apple Watch screen saver for Mac OS X.

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Editor note: After an unintentional hiatus, featured Mac setups are back! We’re a few weeks behind schedule but don’t worry, we’ll catch up! And yes you should absolutely continue to send us in workstation shots and details… OK enough rambling, let’s get to it….

This weeks featured Mac setup is the awesome home recording studio of Steve Steele, a professional film composer, musician, and band leader, with some very beefy Apple gear and loads of great music equipment. This isn’t your average home recording studio though, there’s better music gear and hardware here then you’ll find in many professional studios, so let’s dive in and learn a bit more about this Mac setup:

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If you’re a Mac user who is beta testing OS X El Capitan, either as part of the OS X Public Beta program or as a registered Mac Developer, you may have come across a situation where the latest available update does not appear for you in the Mac App Store as it should. For example, let’s say you’re trying to access OS X 10.11 Public Beta 6 and it won’t show as available, but you know it hasn’t been installed on the Mac yet. Usually this can be resolved by going to the Updates tab and hitting Command+R to refresh the updates, but if that doesn’t work you may need to manually intervene and set the software update download catalog again.

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iCloud Activation Lock is a great feature which allows owners to lock down an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and prevent it from being used in the event that a device has been misplaced, stolen, or lost. This is part of the Find My iPhone feature set, and it’s a very welcome addition for iDevice owners. Of course the other side of iCloud Activation Lock is that it can potentially interfere with the resale market of iOS devices, because a device that has been locked will require the attached Apple ID be entered to remove the lock to make it usable again.

To avoid a situation where you purchase a used iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with Activation Lock enabled, you should take the time to check the devices IMEI or serial number to see what the iCloud Lock status is. This is quite simple to do, and you don’t even need an Apple ID or login to check devices for the activation lock.

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