tips

Command line users may encounter situations where they’d like to open the Google Chrome web browser directly from the Terminal on the Mac.

The Focus Modes feature arrives with a few default Focus’s that include things like Work, Driving, Sleep, and of course users can add their own for anything under the sun. If you don’t want to have a bunch of Focus modes available, either because you’re accidentally enabling them, can’t figure out how to turn them … Read More

Wondering how you can allow apps to be downloaded and opened from anywhere on MacOS Sonoma or Ventura? You may have noticed the ability to select “Allow applications downloaded from anywhere” has been removed by default in MacOS Sonoma & Ventura and other modern versions of MacOS. This does not mean it’s impossible to download … Read More

Your iPhone keeps track of ‘Significant Locations’, which are typically places that you frequent often, like your home, a partners house, office, school, favorite restaurant, frequented hotels, and similar other places. If you’re interested, you can view all the Significant Locations on your iPhone to see where your iPhone has determined is significant to you. … Read More

Many Mac users who have updated to macOS Ventura have discovered an active login item called “OSMessageTracer” that is an “item from unidentified developer.” Given that the OSMessageTracer task is allowed to run in the background on your Mac, and it claims to be from an unidentified developer, it’s understandable why some users would be … Read More

Some Mac users feel that macOS Ventura is much slower than macOS Monterey or Big Sur, offering worse performance in general, and when performing the same tasks on their Mac. It’s not unusual for users to feel that their computer is slower after a major MacOS update, and Ventura is no exception. If you feel … Read More

The Home app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac is a useful hub for managing your Homekit accessories, smart speakers, Homepods, and other smart devices. One nice customization to add to the Home app is to rename your Home setup from “My Home” to something more specific, perhaps your street name or something more easily identifiable, … Read More

How’d you like to use the fantastic camera on your iPhone for Photo Booth on your Mac? You can do that!

Scheduling a Mac to boot, sleep, and shutdown, have been longstanding features in the Energy preference panel on Mac OS since the beginning of the operating system, so if you updated to macOS Ventura and now you’re wondering where those settings went, you aren’t alone. You can still schedule a Mac to turn on and … Read More

Some users are reporting wi-fi connection issues and other internet connectivity problems after updating to MacOS Ventura 13. The problems can range from slow wi-fi connections or reconnections, wi-fi disconnecting randomly, or wi-fi not working at all, or internet connectivity not working after updating a Mac to macOS Ventura. Network connectivity issues seem to pop … Read More

Some iPhone users may discover the side mute/silent switch on their device has randomly stopped working. Given that the mute switch is the only physical switch on the iPhone, and it’s sole job is to put the iPhone into silent mute mode and unmute, it’s pretty inconvenient if this buttons tops working as expected. If … Read More

Some Mac users may notice that a process called “ApplicationsStorageExtension” is running in the background, using a large amount of CPU and memory resources. Typically this process is seen when a computer feels sluggish and a user ventures into Activity Monitor to locate errant processes or whatever is consuming system resources.

Many iPad users have noticed their iPad rings for incoming phone calls on their iPhone. If you do not have an interest in getting phone calls on your iPad, you can stop the iPad from receiving inbound calls that come in to your iPhone, which will prevent the iPad from ringing. If you’ve been wondering … Read More

Apple has included a visible ‘Search’ button on the Home Screen of modern versions of iOS 16 and newer, that when tapped will bring up the devices search function. You can also still pull down on the Home Screen to activate the Search feature on iPhone though, so if you find the search button to … Read More

Some iPad Magic Keyboard users have discovered that the Magic Keyboard randomly stops working, or the keyboard keys will work while the Magic Keyboard trackpad stops working. Magic Trackpad issues can happen at random, or sometimes after installing software updates to the iPad Pro or iPad Air the Magic Trackpad stops working, but fortunately troubleshooting … Read More

Want to set a different wallpaper for iPhone Home Screen than from the Lock Screen in iOS 17 and iOS 16? You can do that, though how you set different wallpapers for the Home Screen and Lock Screen You may have noticed that when you set an image as your wallpaper in the latest iOS … Read More

The iPad can finally update to iPadOS 16 (versioned as iPadOS 16.1), so if you’re interested in nice new features you’ll likely want to run the new operating system on your iPad. If you’re new to the platform you may be unfamiliar with installing software updates, but not to worry, it’s simple, as you’ll soon … Read More

The Brave web browser may be aimed at increasing privacy and reducing ad exposure, but that doesn’t mean it’s a perfect web browser, and one of the more obnoxious aspects of the Brave browser is that it defaults to showing advertising as wallpapers in new windows and tabs. Brave refers to the ad wallpapers as … Read More