iCloud Activation Lock is a feature that allows users to lock down an iPhone (or iPad) and require the entry of an Apple ID before the device becomes usable again. It’s part of the excellent Find My iPhone service and is extremely useful for many reasons, but it can also be a real pain if … Read More
The iWork suite of productivity apps include Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, and each of them allow users to password protect individual documents. In practice, this means that a document created within iWork in iOS, Mac OS X, or iCloud, can be safely locked with built-in encryption, and the document can not be opened or viewed … Read More
The Mail compose window has long had an auto-complete function that lets you start typing a name or email address to see a list of suggestions for completing the contacts email. That list is based upon who you’ve email and also what contacts you have in your address book, but now with the newest versions … Read More
Do you use the Safari browser and shop on the web often from a Mac with Mac? If so, you can greatly speed up your checkouts and online ordering by storing credit cards securely within Safari’s AutoFill Keychain. This makes it possible to instantly autofill card information when ordering on any site, and if you … Read More
iCloud Keychain is a password management feature that arrived to the Mac with Mac OS X Mavericks, and to the mobile Apple world with iOS 7 and remains available in all modern system software releases. Basically it stores encrypted passwords securely within iCloud, which can then be accessed securely through your Mac or iOS device, … Read More
Lost Mode is an outstanding feature of Find My iPhone that allows you to remotely lock an iPhone with a passcode and an on-screen message, rendering the device unusable while in “Lost Mode” until the passcode is entered correctly. Making this feature even better is the ability to choose a contact phone number for the … Read More
Music bought from iTunes and stored in iCloud are part of the iTunes Match service, which basically lets you store all your songs and music in iCloud, and can then be streamed and downloaded to your iOS devices. By default, those songs are shown in the iOS app Music playlist with a little cloud icon … Read More
It’s never fun to accidentally delete a contact that is needed, let alone multiple contacts or even an entire address book. If you find yourself in a situation where you have deleted contacts from your iPhone that you then must recover, you can often get them back by performing a variety of tricks. We’ll cover … Read More
Don’t you hate it when you misplace your iPhone and can’t find it? Or when it slides between the couch cushions or under a pile of laundry and you spend 20 minutes checking every possible place in the house to no avail? The old trick many of us use is to call the iPhone from … Read More
Some Mac users overlook a feature in macOS / Mac OS X that allows them to attach an Apple ID to their actual user account, not just to iCloud and the App Store. It only takes a moment to set, and it provides for an incredibly simple password recovery option at the login and boot … Read More
As you probably know, all of your iPhone Contacts and related address book information is stored within iCloud, assuming you use the cloud service to sync and backup your data of course. What many people don’t know, is that the web interface of iCloud provides an incredibly simple method of exporting those same iPhone contacts, … Read More
While Photo Stream is a great feature of iCloud, if you self manage your iPhone photos, it can quickly end up eating tons of disk space on a Mac hard drive. How, might a reasonable individual ask? Well, it may be unintentionally adding duplicates of all the photos you’re already importing yourself. This happens because … Read More
Practically all apps that store documents in iCloud let you delete them from the app itself, which simultaneously removes them from iCloud and thus all other synced iOS & OS X devices. But if you’re looking to manage and remove specific iCloud documents and data, there is a better way to do it through a … Read More
Many apps for both iOS and OS X store documents and app data directly in iCloud, this allows easy syncing between devices and also provides a certain extra level of backup for some apps, since it’s all stored in the cloud. On the other hand, you may want to remove some of those documents and … Read More
Bookmarks saved within Safari will sync between all of your other iCloud equipped devices, assuming you have iCloud configured correctly do so. This means a website you bookmark on your Mac will sync over to an iPad, and something bookmarked on your iPhone will sync back to your Mac, iPad, and Windows PC, and vice … Read More
Apple has added an optional two-step verification security authentication feature to Apple ID’s, the login which is used to manage everything from iCloud storage settings to iTunes and App Store purchases. With Two-Step Verification enabled, you’ll login as usual, but then be required to verify your identity by entering in a special verification code on … Read More
It’s not unusual for peoples names to change, for someone to switch jobs or phone numbers, or even for a company to change their name or information. It’s frustrating to wander into the Contacts app on the iPhone to discover a ton of entries for a single person or entity to cover each of those … Read More
Now that the simple photo sharing service Photo Stream is an integral part of the camera experience in iOS, you’re probably aware there’s an option to create a public website during the process of creating a new shared photo stream. But you also turn any existing photo stream into a public website too, so if … Read More
