Do you want to know the age of your Mac? Do want to gather the technical specs of your Mac so you can sell it on Craigslist? Do you want to find your Mac’s serial number so you can determine if it is still covered by its warranty? If so, you could use Micromat’s free MachineProfile. Read More from “Easily Gather Tech Details About Your Mac”
Easily Create a Contact List
Do you store your contact information in Apple’s Contacts application? If so, you can easily create a contact list by dragging contacts into Apple’s spreadsheet application, Numbers. Numbers is not as commonly used as Excel, but the more I use Numbers the more I like it. I recently discovered this incredible feature. Contacts is the new name for Apple’s Address Book, as it was known in previous versions of OS X. To create a contact list, simply select one or more contact records in Contacts and drag them into a Numbers files and a list will appear. Read More from “Easily Create a Contact List”
How to Use iCloud Tabs
Have you ever found a website while browsing the web on your iPhone only to find that the text was so small you’d rather read it on your Mac? Or, have you ever started to read a web site on your MacBook Pro, but wanted to finish reading it on your iPad while in bed? Apple has provided a simple solution with the introduction of iCloud Tabs. Read More from “How to Use iCloud Tabs”
Use Safari to Search the iTunes Store
Do you find it difficult to search the iTunes Store? Do you find it difficult to locate the song, book, or app that you seek? Do you find it difficult to compare similar applications since you can only view one product at a time? If so, there is a better way to search the iTunes Store — use Safari or any other web browser. Read More from “Use Safari to Search the iTunes Store”
Create Custom Maps using Google’s Map Engine Lite
Have you ever wanted to create your own custom map online? For example, maybe you have a list of addresses and you’d like to see them all in one picture. Now you can. In March 2013 Google released their Maps Engine Lite tool that allows you to make maps of your own address list by importing an Excel file. (Note: You can also manually add items to your map using the Google Maps search function.) Read More from “Create Custom Maps using Google’s Map Engine Lite”
How To Monitor Your Comcast Data Usage
Are you a residential customer using Comcast’s Xfinity High-Speed Internet service? If so, you can easily monitor your monthly data usage. Historically, Comcast has monitored and capped monthly data usage. As people increasingly stream videos using AppleTVs and iPads and backup the MacBook laptops to the cloud using online backup services, more users were approaching Comcast’s cap. Thus, it can be useful to periodically see how much data your household has been using.
What Are Conflicted Copies in Dropbox?
If you use Dropbox, the very popular file sharing service, you might have noticed that some of your files have the words Conflicted Copy appended to their file name. There are two circumstances which can cause conflicted copies. They most commonly occur when two people edit the same file at the same time. They can also occur when a file is left-open on a computer in an application which uses auto-save. Read More from “What Are Conflicted Copies in Dropbox?”
Fiber Optic Internet Service Coming to Seattle
Update December 2016 – CenturyLink, WaveG and Frontier Communications have offered fiber-optic based Internet service for a while. Service is not available in all neighborhoods and towns. Use the links, above, to check availability in your neighborhood. I’m not aware of any smaller players who are offering such service.
Update: January 2014 – Seattle’s deal with Gigabit Squared has fallen apart amidst unpaid bills and assorted allegations. The Puget Sound Business Journal has this report on the situation.
Gigabit Squared, a new Internet Service Provider is coming to Seattle in 2014. They will be offering Internet service over fiber optic lines and speeds that are between 10-1000 times faster than currently offered by Comcast, CenturyLink, Frontier (formerly Verizon) and Megapath (formerly Covad). I find this an exciting development. While faster speeds are always good, I’m more excited about the prices, which are a great value. Gigabit Squared’s Internet service will be faster and less expensive than Comcast’s service. I think this will be helpful competition to introduce to the marketplace. Read More from “Fiber Optic Internet Service Coming to Seattle”
How to Sync iPhone Notes With Your Mac
Do you use your iPhone’s Notes application? Would you like to view those notes on your Mac? If your Mac is running OS X Mountain Lion, you can view them easily. In Mountain Lion Apple added a new Notes application. You can sync your iPhone notes to the Mac Notes application using your iCloud account. If your Mac is using an older version of Mac OS X you have two other choices. You can either email them to yourself or, if you use an IMAP email account and Apple’s Mail application, you can use that account to make the notes appear in Mail. Here are instructions for each of these options. Read More from “How to Sync iPhone Notes With Your Mac”
How To Retrieve An iPhone Custom Voicemail Greeting
Here’s an overview of how to retrieve a custom iPhone voicemail greeting. A client recently changed her data plan with AT&T. Somehow, as a consequence of this change, her custom outgoing voicemail greeting was lost. Typically, this greeting is stored on AT&T’s system, so it can be played to a caller even if one’s iPhone is turned off or not connected to AT&T’s cellular network. I learned that a copy of this voicemail greeting is also stored on the iPhone. Read More from “How To Retrieve An iPhone Custom Voicemail Greeting”
How to Enable the Emoji Keyboard on Your iPhone
Would you like to type in another language on your iPhone? Would you like to add Emoji to your email and text messages? Emoji are a collection of picture icons. This all started with smiley faces, but Emoji goes far beyond that. Read More from “How to Enable the Emoji Keyboard on Your iPhone”
How To Search By Filename Rather Than By Content
When you type a word into a Spotlight search field on your Mac, your Mac will perform a search of the contents of your files by default. Personally, I tend to search for files by file name most often. Here’s an easy way to get your Mac to search by file name instead of file content. Simply add “name:” before your search term. For example, if you want to find a file on your Mac whose filename contains the word penguin type in name:penguin. Read More from “How To Search By Filename Rather Than By Content”
How To Install LogMeIn
In last week’s Tech Tip, I provided an overview of a few ways a person can remotely access their own Mac, including LogMeIn. I tend to use LogMeIn to provide my clients with remote support. If you’d like to set up your Mac to allow me to remotely control it, please follow these instructions for downloading and installing LogMeIn on your Mac. Read More from “How To Install LogMeIn”
How to Remotely Access Your Mac
Do you want to remotely access your Mac so you can open applications and edit files on it? This is an increasingly common request. Here’s a quick overview of a few ways to remotely access your Mac. Read More from “How to Remotely Access Your Mac”
Make Your AppleID Account More Secure
Would you like to improve the security of your online accounts such as your AppleID, Gmail, FaceBook, PayPal and Dropbox accounts? If so, you should consider turning on two-step authentication for these accounts. Two-step authentication is also called two-factor authentication. Typically, two-factor authentication requires you to enter your password as well as a code sent to your cell phone. This increases security since accessing your account would require both knowledge of your password as well as possession of your cell phone. Read More from “Make Your AppleID Account More Secure”
Manually Delete Time Machine Backups from a Hard Drive
Is your external backup hard drive full of Time Machine backup data? In last week’s Tech Tip, we talked about how Time Machine automatically deletes your oldest backups to make room for new backups. Time Machine typically does this, but I’ve seen it misbehave also. Alternatively, you might want to manually delete some of your old Time Machine backups to free up space on the external hard drive for some other use. In any case, here are instructions on how to manually delete some Time Machine backups. Read More from “Manually Delete Time Machine Backups from a Hard Drive”
What To Do If Your Time Machine Hard Drive Is Full
Has your Time Machine backup hard drive filled up? Are you seeing the “Time Machine deleted one or more backups to make room for new backups” notification? If so, don’t worry. This is perfectly normally and is probably just fine. Let me elaborate and explain. Read More from “What To Do If Your Time Machine Hard Drive Is Full”
Cleaning Up Your Downloads Folder
When was the last time you looked at your Downloads folder? More importantly, when was the last time you cleaned it out? Unless you have reconfigured settings in both Mail and Safari, as well as some other applications, any file that you download gets put into the Downloads folder. I recommend that all users regularly review the contents of their Downloads folder. Move files that you want to keep into another folder and delete files you no longer need. Read More from “Cleaning Up Your Downloads Folder”
Renting Meeting Space in Seattle
Do you ever need to rent a meeting room in Seattle? Many of my clients run home-based businesses and they sometimes need to rent a room where they can conduct trainings, interviews or depositions. Here’s a list of some organizations which rent rooms in the Seattle area. While I try to list a few highlights, these facilities vary widely in size, price, hours of availability, amount of parking, etc. Please contact each organization to get specific details. Read More from “Renting Meeting Space in Seattle”
Comparing Personal VPN Services for Mac Users
Would you like to secure your Internet connection when you’re using a public wireless network at a hotel, coffee shop or airport? If so, you should consider using a personal VPN service like Cloak or TunnelBear. Read More from “Comparing Personal VPN Services for Mac Users”