Washington State now has over 200 drop-off sites for recycling compact fluorescent lights (CFL), high-intensity discharge lights as well as fluorescent tubes. In a previous Tech Tip I listed how to recycle CFLs in Seattle. The drop-off locations listed on the websites mentioned in this older Tech Tip are no longer the only locations. All recycle locations … Read more
Is Comcast, aka Xfinity, your Internet Service Provider (ISP)? If so, you should be aware that starting November 1, 2016 they’ll be implementing monthly data caps in some cities. You can get the full details in this Business Insider article about Comcast. In a previous Tech Tip I wrote about Comcast implementing and then removing monthly … Read more
If you don’t know how to use the search feature on your iPhone or iPad, I think you are doing yourself a disservice. The search feature is easy to use and powerful. Here are instructions for using it. Wake up or unlock your iPhone (or iPad). Place your finger in the middle of the screen … Read more
What is webmail and why would you want to use it? Webmail is a term that is commonly used in two ways. It’s used to describe web-based email services like Yahoo Mail and Google’s Gmail. Webmail is also used to describe web-based access to any email account. For the past decade or more, nearly every ISP or email … Read more
Do you need to reconfigure Time Machine to use a new external hard drive? If you read my Tech Tips regularly you’ll recall that I strongly recommend that everybody setup automatic and redundant systems to backup their Mac. If you use Time Machine to backup your Mac to an external hard drive then you will … Read more
Does Time Machine continually display a status message of Preparing Backup and, thus, it fails to ever complete its current backup of your Mac? If so, you might need to delete the InProgress backup file. These InProgress backup files are created as part of Time Machine performing a backup. However, if the backup fails or gets … Read more
Are you missing your email folders in Apple Mail? Did these folders disappear after you upgraded your Mac’s operating system or after you migrated your data to a new Mac? If so, there’s likely an easy fix. Apple added a Show/Hide button to Apple Mail. I believe they added it to Mail starting with OS X … Read more
Everybody should have an off-site backup of their data. Off-site backups are good protection against fire, floods, burglaries, earthquakes and similar events. These are rare events, but over the past 20 years, I’ve seen all of these events occur and affect client data. As you design your backup system keep in mind the primary 3-2-1 rule. … Read more
Here’s a list of common ways to eject a disk from a Mac. This disk could be a CD, a DVD, a USB flash drive or an external hard drive. Some Apple keyboards have an eject key. It is commonly located in the upper right corner of the keyboard. Press the eject key to eject … Read more
Did you know that your iCloud username and password, your iTunes Store username and password and your AppleID username and password are all the same? Please re-read that last sentence and give it time to sink in. I commonly hear from frustrated computers users who don’t understand this important fact. All too often, when I look … Read more
I recommend that everybody keep a USB mouse and USB keyboard handy. Whether you use a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse or ones connected by USB cables, I think you should keep a spare keyboard and mouse and this spare set should have USB cables. I recommend this for a couple of reasons. The primary reason is … Read more
Here’s an overview of how to install a major upgrade to OS X. For example, if you would like to upgrade from OS X Yosemite (aka OS X 10.10) to OS X El Capitan (aka OS X 10.11) then you could follow the instructions below. (These instructions assume you have at least OS X 10.6.8 or … Read more
Do you have an iPhone? Here are two undocumented features that I use everyday on my iPhone. Silence incoming calls – You can instantly silence an incoming phone call by pressing either of the volume buttons. By pressing one of the volume buttons one time you’ll immediately silence your phone if it’s ringing or buzzing. Jump … Read more
Would you like to be able to export some or all of your email messages as PDF files that you can store in a regular folder on your Mac? If so, check out Email Archiver Pro (time-limited demo version available). Previously, I wrote about how to archive email if you use Microsoft Outlook (or Entourage) and using EagleFiler to archive … Read more
Does your Fujitsu ScanSnap document scanner have problems feeding documents? I love my ScanSnap and have used it nearly every day for many years. It finally had problems reliably grabbing pages and feeding them. The pages’ leading edge would get stuck and I’d have to fuss a bit to get the paper to feed properly. Earlier … Read more
Do the fans on your Mac make a lot of noise? In a sense, this is not a bad thing, but it it is worth investigating to try to figure out what is going on. Typically, the fans in your Mac are running all the time. They are just running at relatively slow speeds so they … Read more
Do you type on your iPhone? If so, you should make sure you know these four typing tips. Tap the Space key twice at the end of a sentence. This inserts a period and a space and also activates the shift key. You’re now ready to type the next sentence without missing a beat. Hold down … Read more
Would you like some guidance on selecting a new iPad? Clients often ask me to help them select an iPad since this has become a more complicated choice. When Apple first introduced the iPad in Jan 2010, there was only 1 screen-size and a few decisions that needed to be made. Now, iPads come in 3 screen sizes … Read more
Have you ever had problems locating your Library folder on your Mac? If so, let me help you locate it. There are two complicating factors. First, there are typically three Library folders on the Mac so locating the correct one can be tough. Second, Apple made one of these three Library folders invisible starting with OS X Lion … Read more
[Note 3/17/23: It appears the TarDisk is no longer in business] Is your MacBook Air or MacBook Pro running low on storage space? If so you could consider installing a TarDisk which will increase your available storage space. A TarDisk is not your only option, but it’s an easy option that appeals to some. A TarDisk … Read more