Have you ever had your Mac or iPhone recalled by Apple? Fortunately, this is a rare event. I believe I have personally bought about 10 Macs over the past 35 years and 4 iPhones over the past 12 years. One of my Macs and one of my iPhones needed to be repaired under an Apple recall. Of course Apple does nott actually use the word recall. Instead, they call them Exchange and Repair Extension Programs. You can find all of Apple’s current repair programs on their web site. Read More from “List Of Apple Product Recalls And Repair Programs”
Alternatives to Adobe Photoshop For Mac Users
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 for everybody. Adobe’s Photoshop and Photoshop Elements are two well-known alternatives but Photoshop has always been expensive and difficult to learn. If your needs exceed Photos but do not warrant Photoshop, you might find that Acorn, Pixelmator Pro, Graphic Converter or Affinity Photos meets your needs. Read More from “Alternatives to Adobe Photoshop For Mac Users”
How To Handle “Word Is Not Optimized For Your Mac”
If you’ve upgraded your Mac to macOS High Sierra or macOS Mojave you have likely seen an alert that looks like the one shown below. I’ll explain what this alert means and how you should handle this situation.
Microsoft Word 2011 is only one of many applications that can trigger this alert, but Word 2011 is, by far, the most prevalent application that triggers this alert. This alert has generated a lot of uncertainty. If one clicks the Learn More button, you’re taken to Apple’s article which offers a mildly technical explanation of the situation. It also outlines what steps you can take, but let me try to present a clearer explanation. Read More from “How To Handle “Word Is Not Optimized For Your Mac””
Brydge: A More Comfortable And Capable Keyboard For iPads
Do you use an iPad but wish you could easily attach a keyboard to let your iPad function more like a laptop for taking notes or composing emails? If so, you should consider the Brydge bluetooth keyboard for iPad. This Tech Tip comes from another Apple consulting business, Convenient Integration. Look for future articles from them on the topics of technology and design.
Most of us spend hours interacting with our electronics every day. I’m becoming more aware of my hardware choices and habits. Thus, I’m focusing on improving ergonomics during these hours. Read More from “Brydge: A More Comfortable And Capable Keyboard For iPads”
View Your Website Passwords Saved in Safari
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 More from “View Your Website Passwords Saved in Safari”
How To Manage Apple Updates On Your Mac
Do 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 that Apple offers them. In last week’s Tech Tip I show you how to disable the automatic installation of macOS updates. In this week’s Tech Tip, I’ll show you how to prevent the accidental installation of macOS updates. Read More from “How To Manage Apple Updates On Your Mac”
How To Disable Automatic Updates For macOS
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 your Mac’s screen, and choose About This Mac. The macOS version will be listed in the window that appears.
I do not enable and do not recommend the automatic installation of macOS updates. While I’m generally in favor of installing macOS updates, I like to control when they get installed. Inevitably, if the computer does it automatically it will pick an inconvenient time.
View Older Versions Of A Website
Have you ever visited a web site to discover that the site no longer exists? Or, have you wanted to view an older version of a website? It is possible to do this if you take a trip in the Wayback Machine. The Wayback Machine, also called the Internet Archive is a non-profit organization that is building a searchable archive of the Internet. Read More from “View Older Versions Of A Website”
Introduction to RAID
Do you need to store many Terabytes (TB) of data or does your business operate a server that needs to be available to your staff at all times? If so, you might want to understand the basics of RAID. A RAID is a group of hard drives working in tandem to give you increased storage capacity or to reduce the likelihood of your data being unavailable to your staff. Drive Savers has an excellent article that includes a 4 minute video that provides a nice introduction to RAID.
Securely Erase Your Mac’s Mechanical Hard Drive With OS X 10.11 (Yosemite) Or Higher
Are you retiring an older Mac that has a mechanical, spinning hard drive in it? If your Mac is running OS X 10.11 or newer then continue reading this article. Below are instructions on how you can securely erase the Mac’s hard drive before you donate your Mac or sell it.