The apps that run on your Mac or iPhone/iPad.
In every job that involves interaction with the public, amusing “Can you believe…” stories about customers abound. They’re often triggered by seemingly reasonable behaviors that experts recognize as problematic. A well-known example from the early days of personal computing is a college student who kept track of his floppy disk by attaching it to his […]
Read moreCloud-based email services such as Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 dominate the market for organizational email for good reason. Dealing with the constant onslaught of spam and online attacks is hard, as those traumatized by running mail servers in the “good old days” can attest. While email service providers excel at their primary functions of […]
Read moreThis is a guest blog post by Jim Emery of Elakha Consulting. He also helps support the operations of Sound Support. Jim is a Mac and iOS consultant in Port Townsend, Washington. He can be found at www.elakhamac.com. On the Mac, Apple’s Photos is the default photo storage and editing application. Among professional photographers, Adobe … Read more
Do you want to password protect a folder on your Mac? If it’s a folder you use regularly then you can use Disk Utility, a free application that comes bundled with your Mac. That’s the focus of this article. On the other hand, if you want to encrypt a file or folder for long-term storage … Read more
We recently wrote an article for those who manage their own Internet domain names about using SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to prevent your domains from being used in phishing attacks and enhance the deliverability of legitimate email. But what about other domains you own but don’t use for email? To make phishing attacks more believable, […]
Read moreDo you have some 20 year old documents that you created in Microsoft Word? Are you aware that today’s version of Microsoft Word likely can’t open them? If you have older Word documents that are important to you, please consider converting them to an open format file type such as PDF/A, so you’ll be to … Read more
For many of us, emoji are fun, but we don’t want to choose Edit > Emoji & Symbols whenever we want to insert one. A faster, better technique is to set up text replacements for emoji you insert often. Open System Settings > Keyboard > Text Replacements, click the + button at the bottom, and […]
Read moreSpam filters work pretty well—99% of the messages in your spam mailbox are probably spam. But it’s frustrating to miss an important message that was caught by an overeager spam filter. Here’s an easy way to find many good messages, also known as “ham,” amidst all the spam. Think of keywords that might appear in […]
Read moreThe latest versions of the Mac and iPad apps in Apple’s iWork suite—Pages 14, Keynote 14, and Numbers 14—have gained a helpful feature: non-contiguous text selection. By holding down the Command key, you can select chunks of text that aren’t next to each other. For example, imagine you want to make the first part of […]
Read moreThe ease of sending and receiving email makes it an attractive way to run scams like phishing attacks. One telltale mark of a phishing attack is the sender’s address not matching their purported domain; attacks that appear to come from legitimate email addresses are much more likely to fool the victim. You can protect your […]
Read moreDoes it feel like your Apple devices are always asking you to install operating system updates? You’re not wrong—from September 2022 to January 2024, we saw the following releases in Apple’s previous set of operating systems: macOS 13 Ventura: 20 releases iOS 16: 25 releases iPadOS 16: 20 releases watchOS 9: 15 releases tvOS 16: […]
Read moreHappy New Year, and welcome to 2024! For many of us, starting a new year means reflecting on fresh habits we’d like to adopt. Although we support any resolutions you may have made to get enough sleep, eat better, exercise more, and reduce social media usage, allow us suggest a few more that will improve […]
Read moreSometimes, something goes wrong, causing Mail on the Mac to have trouble sending a message. When it does, you may see an error like the one below, encouraging you with a default button to try another configured server. Don’t do it! Always click Try Later. If that still doesn’t work, contact your favorite tech support […]
Read moreWhen we help someone with their Mac for the first time, we often notice that their desktop is a disaster. Icons are scattered willy-nilly and often piled on top of one another, making it hard to locate anything. For most people, the solution is easy—sort the contents of the desktop. In the Finder, choose View […]
Read moreApps are everywhere these days, but it can be hard to remember that many exist in multiple versions. You can often run the same app on a Mac, an iPhone or iPad, and in a Web browser, each of which has benefits. Generally speaking, Mac apps: Have better-designed, more obvious interfaces that improve the user […]
Read moreLet’s say you use 1Password (or another third-party password manager) on an iPhone or iPad. When that’s the case, it’s easy to end up in a situation where your device will present passwords from both 1Password and iCloud Keychain, possibly along with another app. That won’t break anything, but as you can see in the […]
Read moreDo you have trouble concentrating at work because of a loud office environment? Or do you work at home and want to block out the sounds of kids or appliances? In macOS 13 Ventura, Apple added background sounds you can play to mask what’s going on around you. Go to System Settings > Accessibility > […]
Read moreWe’ve seen an uptick in attacks on Facebook accounts that generate email messages like the one below. It’s saying someone is attempting to reset your Facebook password in order to access your account. If you didn’t ask to reset your Facebook password within the past 5 minutes, do not enter the provided code! In fact, […]
Read moreSometimes apps can be too helpful. Apple’s Mail on the Mac likes to turn pasted URLs into graphically rich previews, and sometimes that’s OK. But other times, the preview is confusing or takes up too much space. Or you may want to send a plain link so the recipient can see its text. There are […]
Read moreThe Mac’s Desktop is a remarkably useful place. It’s a good spot for in-progress documents, screenshots, images dragged out of Web pages, and more. However, app windows tend to obscure the Desktop, making it harder to use. There are two quick ways you can temporarily hide windows, making it easy to access icons on the […]
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