Apple has released iOS 15.2.1 for iPhone along with iPadOS 15.2.1 for iPad.
The iOS 15.2.1 and iPadOS 15.2.1 updates are relatively minor and includes a bug fix for an issue with photos loading over iMessage, an issue with CarPlay apps, and offers a security fix for an issue with HomeKit. If any other issues are addressed, they are not mentioned in the release notes.
If you’re a Mac user with a Touch Bar equipped MacBook Pro, you may be wondering how to show the F keys, or function keys, like F1, f2, f3, f4, f5, f6, f7, f8, f9, f10, f11, or f12 on the Touch Bar.
As you likely know, by default the Touch Bar screen changes all the time depending on what app is open on the Mac, unless you disabled the Touch Bar anyway to always show the Control Strip to show things like the escape key, brightness, Mission Control, sound controls, Siri, etc. But you can also set Touch Bar to show the Function keys, or simply see them temporarily.
Apple has issued the second beta build of macOS Monterey 12.2 to users participating in the beta testing programs for system software for the Macintosh.
There are no obvious major changes or features in macOS Monterey 12.2 beta 2 as of yet, so it’s assumed the release will focus on fixing bugs, issues, and problems with MacOS Monterey.
Universal Control, the feature that allows a Mac to control other Macs and iPads with a single mouse and keyboard, is expected to arrive sometime in Spring of 2022, though it’s uncertain if that will be included in macOS 12.2 or a later macOS Monterey release.
WORDLE is an increasing popular word game that is spreading around everywhere, and if you spend much time on social media you may have already seen a screenshot of someones score or streak.
The gist of WORDLE is fairly simple; players are tasked with guessing a five letter word, and the game gives clues by indicating which letters are either in the word (yellow), or in the right place (green). Letters not in the word appear as dark gray. You only get six guesses per day, and the WORDLE puzzle regenerates a new puzzle every day for everyone.
Disappointed you can’t use Sidecar on your Mac and iPad? Thanks to Free-Sidecar, you can expand Sidecar compatibility to additional iPad and Mac models that are otherwise not officially supported by Apple for the feature.
Sidecar is one of the most useful features for Mac and iPad users, allowing an iPad to serve as an external display for a Mac. It’s makes for convenient dual screen setups just about anywhere, whether at your desk or while traveling, and it’s fantastic. One downside to Sidecar is that the the device compatibility is somewhat limited to select newer model iPad and Macs – officially, anyway. But that’s where Free-Sidecar comes in, expanding the compatibility so you can use Sidecar on additional older devices.
If you’re coming to the Mac from the Windows world, you may be wondering how you can quickly create a text file in a folder in MacOS. In Windows, you can simply right-click and choose to create a new text file in whatever directory you’re located in, so how can you do something similar on a Mac?
It turns out there are many ways to create a new text file in a folder on the Mac, so let’s take a look at a few different approaches.
Content Caching is a unique Mac feature that can be extremely useful if you have several Apple devices in your home. It can be used to save your internet data, speed up downloads, and even iCloud data access, by caching things like iOS, macOS, or iPadOS software updates on the Mac, which then get distributed from the server Mac to eligible devices on the network – rather than having to download them again from Apple. This feature used to be restricted to macOS server, but Apple pushed it out to consumers with the macOS High Sierra update a few years ago.
Did you know that Siri on Apple Watch can read out all the messages you receive, and even reply to them without having to take your iPhone out of your pocket? As long as you have a second-generation and newer AirPods or compatible Beats wireless headphones, you’ll be able to take advantage of this feature with your Apple Watch.
Do you want to use a different Game Center account on your iPhone and iPad, perhaps to restore the progress of some games that you play? Fortunately, this is not nearly as hard as you may think, and you can do this within a matter of seconds.
If you’ve owned a variety of Apple devices over the years, you may eventually get to a point where you have sold, handed down, or traded away some of those older Macs, iPhones, iPads, or other Apple hardware. Whatever the situation, once a device is no longer in your possession, you should remove the devices you’re no longer using from your Apple account for security reasons. Plus it’s just good practice to clean out devices that are no longer yours so they are not associated with your Apple ID anymore.
Spotlight Search is enabled by default on the iPhone Lock Screen, along with Today View. This may be convenient for some users, but for others it’s either annoying, unnecessary, or a potential privacy breech as anyone who picks up the iPhone can see and search through your apps, calendar, and other personal data.
While the lock screen search and Today view doesn’t reveal everything an unlocked iPhone does, it can still be too much for some users. And of course for others, they may just find the feature to be annoying and to activate unintentionally, for example if you ever fidget with an iPhone in your pocket and then pull it out, you may notice Spotlight is searching for some gibberish text when you look at the screen.
If you want to turn off the search feature and remove search and today widgets on the locked screen of an iPhone, read along.
Do you use Google Docs or Google Sheets for word processing, managing to-do lists, to work on spreadsheets, and perform other office tasks? In that case, you may be wondering how to check the changes you’ve made to the document. We’ll show you how to view recent changes and revision history in Google Docs, Google Sheets, and the Google workspace apps.
How often have you been in conversations that you didn’t want to be a part of, on a bad date, or in some other undesirable situation? Sometimes you want to avoid a conversation or experience, but there isn’t an easy escape. In these uncomfortable moments, perhaps the easiest way to to this without making things awkward is by using your iPhone to stage a fake incoming call.
Do you use the Chrome web browser for iPhone or iPad, but want to change the default search engine? Sure, Google is without a doubt the most popular search engine, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other search engines, and even though Chrome pairs well with Google search, you can change the default search engine in Chrome for iOS and iPadOS if you’d like to. Maybe you prefer the user interface of Chrome, but the search results of DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, or Bing, for example.
If you’re looking for a great no-nonsense RSS reader for your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, then you’ll find NetNewsWire is an excellent choice. You can add as many RSS feeds as you’d like, and scanning through them is easy no matter what device you’re using. And if you’re on an iPhone or iPad, you can even add a handy RSS feed Home Screen widget. NetNewsWire is also free, making it the best free RSS reader for iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
Do you use Apple’s Keynote app to create presentations on your devices, but the colleague that you’re working with uses a Windows PC instead? These situations are common, and you may run into compatibility issues when you switch between platforms. Fortunately this can be avoided if you can allocate an extra few seconds of your time, by converting the Keynote presentation file to PowerPoint, and you can do that directly on an iPhone or iPad.
Photos taken with iPhone and iPad cameras make use of the HEIC file format, which is a high-efficiency image format for storing images. The key advantage of this format is largely reduced file size, which means you end up saving a lot of storage space. However, this comes at the cost of compatibility. Thus, some users may want to convert HEIC files to JPG, and this may be extra valid in the Windows world.
If you’re some who makes use of the built-in Voice Memos app, you may have noticed how the audio recordings are sometimes named after your location. So, looking to stop Voice Memos from using your street name or building name for your next recording? That’s what we’ll cover here.
