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How to Disable Online Activity Status on Instagram to Stop Showing When You’re Using the App

Jan 21, 2018 - 9 Comments
Open Instagram settings

Instagram now defaults to showing other peoples accounts when you were last active using the Instagram application. For example, if you’re using Instagram right now then other Instagram users will be able to see that you are using the app at that moment. If you used the app exactly 23 minutes ago, other users can … Read More

How to Open a Link in New Private Browsing Window in Safari for Mac

Dec 22, 2017 - 3 Comments
Safari Technology Preview

You can easily open any link found on the web into a new private browsing window on Safari for Mac, thanks to a helpful albeit little-known trick available in the web browser. For the unfamiliar, Private Browsing mode aims to protect private information and some degree of privacy by preventing websites from tracking search behavior, … Read More

How to Delete Touch Bar Data from MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Dec 21, 2017 - 6 Comments
Erase Touch Bar Data on Mac

The Touch Bar equipped MacBook Pro stores additional data for the Touch Bar and Touch ID sensor that is not erased by default if you format a Mac or reinstall MacOS system software. Thus, if you want to completely clear out and erase all Touch Bar data, you will need to manually intervene via a … Read More

How to Disable Emergency SOS on iPhone to Stop Dialing 911 Accidentally

Dec 4, 2017 - 23 Comments
Emergency SOS screen on iPhone X

The iPhone XS, XR, XS Max, and iPhone X offers an Emergency SOS feature which will automatically dial 911 when the devices side buttons are held down for several seconds. The Emergency SOS countdown then starts blaring an alarm and counts down from 3, 2, 1, before dialing emergency services on your behalf, thanks to … Read More

MacOS High Sierra Security Bug Allows Root Login Without a Password, Here’s a Fix

Nov 28, 2017 - 35 Comments
macOS High Sierra root password bug

A significant security vulnerability has been discovered with macOS High Sierra, potentially allowing any person to log into a Mac with full root administrative capabilities without a password. This is an urgent security problem, and while a software update should arrive to resolve the problem soon, this article will detail how to protect your Mac … Read More

How to Reset Face ID on iPhone & iPad

Nov 27, 2017 - 5 Comments
Face ID

If you discover that Face ID is not reliably unlocking iPhone or iPad, you may want to try resetting Face ID and then setting it up again. Additionally, you can disable Face ID completely by resetting Face ID on a device and then not setting it up again. Resetting Face ID is pretty simple and … Read More

Can You Use iPhone 14, 13, 12, 11, 11 Pro, X, XS, XR Without Face ID? Yes! Face ID Questions, Answered

Nov 10, 2017 - 25 Comments
Use iPhone X without Face ID

There are a lot of questions out there about using iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro max, iPhone X, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, or iPhone XR and the new Face ID feature, which scans your face to … Read More

How to Disable Face ID on iPhone (Temporarily)

Nov 7, 2017 - 3 Comments
Temporarily disable Face ID on iPhone

Want to temporarily disable Face ID on iPhone? For iPhone models with Face ID, like iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone X, XS, iPhone XR, or iPhone XS Max, you may find yourself wanting to quickly turn off Face ID on iPhone so that it can not … Read More

How to Delete All Emails in a Gmail Account

Sep 1, 2017 - 16 Comments
Gmail

Have you ever wanted to delete every email from a Gmail account? Maybe you want to permanently delete every email message in Gmail to start fresh, or maybe you’re giving a Gmail account to someone else, or you just want to clear every email from a Gmail account for whatever the reason. If you want … Read More

How to Use TOR on iPhone and iPad with Onion Browser

Aug 12, 2017 - 13 Comments
Tor for iPhone

TOR is a relay network which aims to increase your online privacy by attempting to anonymize web browsing activity. This is achieved by distributing your traffic across a series of TOR servers, which obfuscates your IP behind those Tor servers. While TOR is typically used on the desktop – you can read about using TOR … Read More

How to Remove Location from Photos on Mac

Jul 20, 2017 - 3 Comments
Remove geographic location from Photos on Mac

Many pictures taken with an iPhone, Android phone, or digital camera include location data with the picture, which gives anyone who has the image file the ability to see exactly where the photo was taken. Additionally, the Photos app for Mac allows users to add a location to any picture as well. If you don’t … Read More

How to Send Invisible Ink Messages from iPhone and iPad

Jun 26, 2017 - 2 Comments
Messages

iOS Messages includes the Invisible Ink feature which allows people to send obfuscated messages to and from iPhone and iPad. The invisible messages arrive visibly obscured, and the content of the invisible message can only be revealed by swiping a finger on the blurred message(s) to temporarily reveal the message text, image, or video. And … Read More

How to See How Much Time is Spent in Apps on iPhone & iPad

Jun 15, 2017 - 14 Comments
See how much time iOS apps are used for

Have you ever wondered just how much time you spend in a particular app on your iPhone or iPad? Whether you’re curious how long you spend in Messages, or you’re concerned you’re wasting time all day in an app like Facebook or Minecraft, you can use a neat little iOS trick to see exactly how … Read More

How to Reveal Hidden Message Previews with Touch ID on iPhone Lock Screen

May 23, 2017 - 8 Comments
The locked screen shows a hidden message preview on iOS

The iPhone defaults to showing message previews on the lock screen of iOS, revealing the sender name and message content text. Because of potential privacy ramifications, many users turn off message previews on the lock screen which hides the message content, but then to read the full message users have to go to the Message … Read More

How to Disable Webcam / FaceTime Camera on Mac Completely

Mar 1, 2017 - 38 Comments
How to disable Mac camera completely

Some of the more privacy conscious Mac users out there might put tape over their webcam or use apps like Oversight to detect camera activity. While either of those approaches can be satisfactory for many users (or considered totally paranoid and overboard to others), many advanced Mac users in the security community go a step … Read More

Detect Webcam & Microphone Activity on Mac with Oversight

Feb 21, 2017 - 13 Comments
Detect camera and microphone access on Mac

Though Mac users don’t usually have to worry excessively about “camfecting” malware and spyware, some security conscious users may find it nice to know if a process or application is attempting to access their computers web camera or microphone. With the help of a free third party security utility called Oversight, you can have your … Read More

How to View FileVault Progress When Encrypting a Mac Disk

Feb 8, 2017 - 3 Comments
Check Filevault encryption progress

Using Filevault on a Mac encrypts the entire hard drive and helps protect personal data from theft or unauthorized snooping. It’s a great security feature that many users enable when they’re first setting up their Mac, but some users may enable it or disable it later as well. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that, but … Read More

How to Hide Pictures in Photos for Mac with Hidden Album

Dec 29, 2016 - 12 Comments
Unhide a photo in Photos for Mac

If you have some picture(s) you’d rather not shown alongside your regular photo album in Photos for Mac, you can hide those photos and then use a special Hidden Photos album to contain the hidden images and browse them separately. These hidden pictures will be self contained and separate from the regular album views, though … Read More

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