Information about the physical gadgets you use.
Do you want to either sell or retire a Mac that has a solid state hard drive (aka flash storage)? If so, it is prudent to securely erase the hard drive beforehand. Here are instructions on how to do this. This procedure will make all of your personal data inaccessible. There are two stages of this process. In phase … Read more
Are you in the market for buying a Mac, iPhone or iPad? Would you like to get the best deal possible? If so, here are some suggestions on how to do some comparison shopping and some encouragement to consider buying a refurbished product.
Read moreHere’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
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
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
Would you like some guidance on selecting a new printer? Clients often ask me to recommend a good printer or tell them which printer they should buy. These requests are actually surprisingly difficult for two reasons. First, there are numerous printer manufacturers and each company makes a range of printer models which are often updated yearly so it … Read more
Some iPhone or iPad problems are only resolved by restoring your iPhone or iPad to factory settings. Apple’s support article details how to restore an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. Restoring a device is definitively one of the last techniques I invoke when troubleshooting iPhone or iPad problems. I have only invoked it when more traditional … Read more
Do you have an iPhone or iPad that you cannot access? Is it locked by a passcode that you have forgotten? If so, you will need to use Recovery Mode to regain access to this device. Apple’s support article describes how to use Recovery Mode. Here are some important caveats:
Read moreHave you ever wondered if you could use the power adapter that came with another model of Mac laptop with your Mac laptop? In most cases, the answer is yes, but there are a few details to be aware of. Apple’s Support article on the subject states the following. “You can use a compatible higher … Read more
Did you know that Apple only services Macs, iPhones, iPad and iPod for 5 years? Apple uses the term vintage to describe products that have been discontinued for more than 5 years. An Apple support article states that “Vintage products are those that have not been manufactured for more than five years and less than seven years … Read more
Did your iPhone or iPad freeze and stop responding? If so, perform a hard reset. This procedure will fix many small issues. If your device continues to freeze then you may need to take more extensive measures, like performing a factory reset or taking it to the Genius Bar at an Apple Store. Here are instructions … Read more
Do you own an iPhone 6, 6S, 6 Plus or a 6S Plus? If so, use Reachability to make it easier to use the phone with only one hand. The iPhone 6 (or 6S) and iPhone 6 Plus (or 6S Plus) come with 4.7″ and 5.5″ screens, respectively. Apple added a feature named Reachability to make … Read more
Will you be taking photos with your iPhone or iPad this holiday season? If so, here is the fastest way to access your device’s camera. Press the Home button on the face of the iPhone. Do you see the camera icon in the lower right corner? Press on this icon and simultaneously slide your finger … Read more
If you own an iPhone make sure your Find My iPhone feature is enabled. Find My iPhone is one of the services offered by Apple’s iCloud service. The Find My iPhone feature helps you locate your iPhone, lock it and potentially erase it. Best of all, Find My iPhone is a theft deterrent since this feature … Read more
Have you ever wondered how to identify which iPhone or iPad model you have? While there are some physical characteristics that might help you generally differentiate one model from another, these differences are often subtle and aren’t always sufficient. Here are a two ways to definitively identify your iOS device.
Read moreIf Comcast is your Internet Service Provider, you are likely renting your cable modem from them. In the Seattle area, the rental fee is currently about $10 per month. If you’re renting, you should consider buying your own cable modem. Here are the pros and cons of renting a cable modem, as I see them.
Read moreIf you have a relatively new Mac running OS X Yosemite (OS X version 10.10) and an iPhone running iOS 8 you may have noticed that your Mac rings when you receive a call on your iPhone and the two devices are close to each other. This feature is part of Continuity, which is a … Read more
Do you print a lot of mailing labels so you can send envelopes to clients? Do you have all of your client’s and friend’s street addresses stored in Apple’s Contacts application? If so, you might want to consider a label printer like the ones made by Dymo.
Read moreDo you frequently run out of USB ports on your Mac? If so, then you might want to consider purchasing a USB hub. A USB hub is a splitter. The hub plugs into 1 of the USB ports on your Mac and then gives you a handful of additional USB ports. Hubs typically come with 4, 7 … Read more