Apple has released OS X El Capitan 10.11.2 Beta 3 for Mac users enrolled in the developer beta and public beta testing programs.
Apple has started running the first TV advertisement for the new iPad Pro, featuring a user of the large screen iPad manipulate a space scene in Sky Guide, then using ProCreate to sketch on other galactic imagery via the Split View feature and an Apple Pencil.
If you use Google Chrome as your default web browser and find yourself with a ton of tabs and windows open on a regular basis, you likely know the RAM, swap, and resource burden that leaving a gazillion tabs open does to your computer. Rather than forcibly quitting Chrome or abandoning your browser tabs, the latest versions of the Chrome browser support an optional “discarding” feature that will automatically discard background tabs as the application begins to run low on available memory.
Apple has released the first update to the new Apple TV, versioned as tvOS 9.0.1. The update likely focuses on bug fixes, though specific changes aren’t yet known as release notes have not accompanied the download.
If you have ever wanted to play a movie, video, or multiple videos as a screen saver on a Mac, then SaveHollywood is the screensaver for you. The free download allows for playing just about any locally stored video file format as the Mac OS X screen saver, with many options for customization.
Adding pictures and photos to your iPhone contacts is a nice way to improve the iOS experience for phone calls and messaging, as it helps to quickly identify people in conversations and when reaching out.
Assigning pictures to contacts is quick and easy, and the trick is the same whether on iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, and regardless of iOS version. Assuming you use iCloud to sync the contacts, the custom contact pictures will automatically transfer over to any shared device or Mac as well.
Another Mac setup is here! This time we’re featuring the beautifully minimalistic setup of Jimmy S., a CTO and system developer. Let’s jump in to learn a bit more:
Apple Watch supports Apple Pay, which basically lets you use your watch as a super-fast payment mechanism in a variety of stores, ranging from Whole Foods to Starbucks, with many more coming onboard. Just like Apple Pay on the iPhone, the payments are processed and handled by a credit card or debit card, and thus you’ll need to set up the Apple Watch to use Apple Pay before you’ll be able to make quick payments with the device.
Once you have Apple Pay setup on the Apple Watch, you’ll be able to make payments and purchases remarkably quickly with basically just a quick swipe of your wrist.
The latest versions of Photos app for Mac allow users to add geographic location data to any pictures stored within the image browser. This can be helpful for organizing photos, sharing with others where a picture was taken, and for later recollection purposes too. Additionally, you can edit the location of pictures as well, so if a photo was incorrectly assigned a location, you can change that in the OS X Photos app.
Gatekeeper is a security feature built into Mac OS X which helps to prevent unauthorized applications and code from executing on a Mac. Most users have encountered Gatekeeper before when they go to open an application downloaded from the internet, where you see an “App can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer” error message. Because Gatekeeper is a worthwhile security feature, almost all Mac users should leave it enabled, but some advanced OS X users, developers, and systems administrators may need to disable Gatekeeper. While you can do that, users will find that Gatekeeper re-enables itself after a 30 day period has lapsed, basically meaning that Gatekeeper will turn itself back on even if it has been turned off.
This is a security feature called ‘Auto Rearm’ and it’s a new addition to Gatekeeper in MacOS Sierra, OS X El Capitan and Yosemite, but with a little effort the auto-enable feature can be disabled too.
Advanced Mac users who need frequent access to a files complete path in macOS and Mac OS X may find themselves turning to the drag & drop Terminal trick or performing a variety of other tricks to copy an items path, but with Mac OS X 10.11 and later, there’s a new native Copy Pathname option built directly into the Finder. Just as it sounds, it will copy the complete pathname of a file or folder directly to the clipboard.
Notification Center on iPhone and iPad includes an optional widget that allows users to check the battery life of other devices connected through Bluetooth. Essentially this means you can quickly see what the remaining battery percentage of not just the device in hand, but also of an Apple Watch from an iPhone, or keyboard battery life from an iPad, all without having to access the device itself.
The Disk Utility app has long contained the ability to verify and repair disk permissions on a Mac, but in the latest versions of OS X this ability has been removed. That doesn’t mean you can’t verify permissions and repair permissions in OS X El Capitan 10.11 and later however, you just need to turn to the command line to do so.
The latest versions of iOS allow iPhone users to save, share, and forward voicemails. This means you can easily share an important voicemail message with a colleague or friend, or save a specific voicemail to the iPhone to store it locally for later access and listening.
A new beta version of OS X El Capitan 10.11.2 has been released for Mac users participating in the beta testing programs.
Apple has released the second beta version of iOS 9.2 to users participating in the developer beta testing program. Additionally, Apple has release the first beta version of tvOS 9.1 for the new 4th generation Apple TV. Both betas appear to focus on bug fixes and feature refinements.
You can copy photos to an Apple Watch to enjoy them on the devices beautiful OLED display. While the screen size is on the small side, that doesn’t mean Apple Watch isn’t a great place to store some pictures and have a few of your favorite memories right on your wrist, so let’s learn how to copy whatever photos you want over to your Apple Watch.
You can easily change the login screen wallpaper in OS X El Capitan to any image of your choice. This will impact the appearance of the login window when you boot a Mac, and also when you are using fast user switching to change user accounts. The wallpaper image that is replaced is what sits behind those login locked screens, which by default is a blurry version of the active desktop picture wallpaper. The replaced customized wallpaper will be your picture without any blurred effects.
