Some Mac users may discover the mds_stores process has run amuck, consuming absurd amounts of CPU and memory when viewed in Activity Monitor. Typically this is accompanied by unusually sluggish system performance on a Mac, which is what inspired the visit into Activity Monitor to begin with, and there you may find that mds_stores is … Read More
A fair number of people who use the ChatGPT app for Mac have recently run into a strange and alarming malware message when attempting to open and use ChatGPT. The error says that “Malware Blocked and Moved to Trash” and informs the user that “ChatGPT.app was not opened because it contains malware. The action did … Read More
If you’re the type of person who uses tons of open tabs in a web browser, you’ll undoubtedly have experienced a situation where you’d like to bookmark all of the tabs you have open so that you can easily return back to your browsing session. Fortunately, the Google Chrome browser makes bookmarking all tabs in … Read More
Instagram has introduced a new feature called “Instants” which seems to be inspired by Snapchat in that it allows for instant expiring pictures to be sent to people. Like any new feature, some people are going to like it, and some people are going to not like it, and if you happen to find the … Read More
The iPhone Voice Messages feature is quite useful and fun, allowing for audio recordings to be sent to and from people in the Messages app. Voice Messaging allows people to hear your voice, and you to hear theirs, and for many people it’s easier to speak into their iPhone rather than tap out a long … Read More
The latest iOS versions for iPhone include a custom gradient wallpaper generator, allowing you to make some nice looking wallpapers of your choice, but many users are likely to miss the feature because it’s tucked into the LGBTQ Pride wallpaper collection on the iPhone. Want a multicolor gradient blue wallpaper? A greyscale gradient? A gradient … Read More
If you’re the tech tinkerer type and you don’t mind potentially voiding your MacBook Neo warranty, you can perform a little quick modification to your Neo that can make it perform up to 20% faster under heavy workloads. This is a pretty simple mod that aims to reduce thermal throttling behavior of the CPU, and … Read More
If you’re a Mac user of the Chrome web browser, as many are, you might be interested to know that the latest versions of Chrome default to downloading a large local Gemini AI model that can take up around 4GB of storage space. While some users may appreciate and use the local Chrome Gemini AI … Read More
The latest versions of iOS and iPadOS support a feature that allow you to easily see who and what devices are using data on Personal Hotspot. This is particularly useful if you find yourself using Personal Hotspot often, and perhaps find yourself hitting overages or getting throttled from Personal Hotspot data usage over cellular. By … Read More
If your iPhone suddenly starts recording a voice message seemingly at random while you’re in the Messages app, you’re probably unintentionally triggering a feature called Raise to Listen. This feature is part of the iOS Messages app, where lifting the iPhone to your ear can automatically start to play or record an audio message. The … Read More
If you’re looking for a new unique way to spruce up your Mac desktop visual experience, you might enjoy trying out live wallpapers with a free Mac app called Wallpaper Reactor Lite. Live wallpapers are much like they sound like; active moving wallpaper images rather than a single static image. It’s a neat visual effect, … Read More
The menu bar on a Mac tends to fill up with clutter and icons over time. Between system icons like Spotlight, the date and clock, wi-fi, third party apps, various utilities, and popular tools, it’s quite easy for the menu bar to become a crowded strip of icons that’s distracting and harder to interact with. … Read More
Update: Apparently NotePad++ for Mac is unofficial and not associated with the Windows version or developer. According to a blog post by the Windows developer Don Ho, the Mac release has “nothing to do with Notepad++. It’s not authorized, not endorsed, and not affiliated with the project in any way. The owner is using the … Read More
Whether you’re preparing to sell, recycle, or repurpose a Mac, or you’re going through old hard drives and storage disks that you wish to clear all data from, securely erasing the drive is an important step. Simply deleting files or formatting a disk isn’t always enough, especially for hard drives and external storage, since data … Read More
The Calendar app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac offers a handy automatic event detection feature, able to find details like dates, times, and locations, through the Messages app and even Mail app, of presumed events and appointments. The auto detection system is part of Siri, and recognizes dates as potential events, placing them in a … Read More
The Passwords app, Apple’s built-in password manager for Mac, iPhone, and iPad, not only stores your logins and passwords for easy authentication, but it can also alert you to security risks. Passwords app makes it easy to quickly find compromised, reused, or weak passwords, and take action to secure your accounts. If you’re a Passwords … Read More
Performing a clean install of macOS Tahoe can be a necessary task in some situations, offering a way to start fresh on a Mac. Since a clean install removes everything and reinstalls MacOS from scratch, you are presented with basically a brand new Mac from a software standpoint. Clean installations can be useful for users … Read More
The newest versions of iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 have another Accessibility toggle that can help to further reduce the intensity of the Liquid Glass interface appearance for iPhone and iPad, called “Reduce Bright Effects”. As you might have guessed by the name alone, toggling the switch on will eliminate the brighter and flashier effects … Read More
