The apps that run on your Mac or iPhone/iPad.
Is your Mac’s hard drive getting full? Have you ever noticed that Apple designates some of your storage space as purgeable space? What is purgeable space? Apple introduced the concept of purgeable space in macOS 10.12 Sierra. If your Mac is using macOS Sierra or newer, you can easily see if it has so-called purgeable … Read more
Did you know that you can bypass using your Mac’s Trash and simply delete a file immediately? Somehow I failed to learn that Apple added this feature in 2015 with OS X El Capitan (aka OS X 10.11). Deleting a file is usually a two step process. First, move the file to the Trash, then … Read more
If you haven’t already removed Adobe Flash Player from your Mac, now is a great time to do this. Adobe Flash was once the primary format for animations and video clips on the Web, but Apple never permitted Flash on their iPhones and iPads. I believe this marked the start of the shift away from … Read more
On November 12, 2020, Apple released the next version of the Mac operating system (macOS). It’s name is macOS Big Sur. Like all major operating system upgrades, it’s prone to have some significant bugs and/or will make some of your older applications incompatible, so please hold off on installing this major upgrade for a while. … Read more
This week’s Tech Tip is a cautionary tale. Please make sure you enable the Find My feature on your iPhone or iPad if you bought AppleCare+ with Theft and Loss protection. The Find My feature was originally called Find My iPhone, but Apple renamed it since it has been added to the Mac, Apple Watch, … Read more
Do you use Microsoft Word on your Mac? Did you know that in October of 2019, Microsoft quietly enhanced Word so it can open PDF files, convert them to Word files, and edit them? Yes, that’s right, Word can now edit PDF files. This feature was added to Word 2019, specifically version 16.30. To determine … Read more
Here are instructions on how to add a Comcast account to an iPhone or iPad. Comcast, like most email providers offer a type of email account called IMAP. These instructions apply to any IMAP email accounts, not just Comcast. For simplicity, I’m going to write iPhone instead or iPhone or iPad, but the instructions are … Read more
Do you have an Exchange email account? Many people think that they have to use Microsoft Outlook on their Mac to access an Exchange account. This is not true. Apple’s Mail application on both Macs and iPhones can be used instead. Here are setup instructions.
Read moreAre you unable to either send or receive emails on your iPhone? Are you getting an error message about an incorrect password? Sending and receiving emails are independent processes so one could be working while the other one is not. More specifically, your iPhone could be able to send emails but not receive emails, or … Read more
Do you use either Parallels or VMWare Fusion on your Mac? Does your virtual machine use the Windows 7 operating system? If so, it’s time to retire Windows 7 and switch to Windows 10. Windows 7 was released in 2009 and Microsoft ended mainstream support for it in 2015. Microsoft is ending their extended support … Read more
Did you Mac fail to adjust its clock this morning when Daylight Savings Time ended? If so, please configure your Mac to automatically adjust it’s date and time, by doing the following:
Read moreEvery fall for the past decade or so, Apple has released major updates to macOS and iOS, the operating systems used by Macs, iPhones and iPads. Despite Apple’s frequent reminders to install these major updates, I think it’s foolish to install them as soon as they’re released since they typically introduce significant change, may contain … Read more
Do you own an older version of Photoshop, but not want to buy a subscription to use current versions of Adobe Photoshop? If so, here are some alternative image editors that are affordable and well reviewed. While many people find Apple’s Photos application adequate for their photo storage and editing needs, Photos is not sufficient … Read more
Does your new iPhone not have a Home button? Are you struggling to figure out how to do some tasks that used to be done using the Home button? Have you discovered that you can no longer turn off your iPhone by pressing and holding the button on the side and then swiping your finger … Read more
Do you use Safari as your web browser? Do you ask it to save the passwords you use to login to various websites? If so, did you know that you can view a list of these passwords? This is a handy way to look-up or retrieve some of your passwords.
Read moreDo you think your Mac abruptly installed an update to your Mac’s operating system on its own, without your permission? While it is possible for this to occur if you have automatic updates enabled, I have also had clients inadvertently instruct their Mac to install macOS updates. This occurs because people get confused by the choices … Read more
Would you like to make sure that your Mac is not configured to automatically install updates to the Mac operating system (macOS)? If so, follow the instructions for the version of macOS installed on your Mac. To determine which version you have installed, please click on the Apple menu, in the upper left corner, of … Read more
Do you use Microsoft Outlook 2011, Outlook 2016, or newer, on a Mac? If your copy of Outlook has lost its ability to find emails, here are some suggestions on how to fix Outlook’s search function. Microsoft has written a thorough article outlining all possible causes and fixes when Outlook’s search function stops working. This … Read more
Have you noticed that once Apple releases a new version of the Mac operating system (macOS) that previous versions vanish from the App Store? Have you ever needed to reinstall one of these older versions of the Mac operating system (macOS)? It can be challenging to do this since Apple does not make older versions readily available … Read more
Do you use the Flag button in Apple Mail to tag some of your messages with a small red flag icon? This is a quick way to mark some messages so they’ll get your attention when you review your Inbox in the Mail application. Did you know that Mail offers 7 colored flags? Did you … Read more