macOS

You could actually cobble together a way to share contacts if you’ve got to—for example, by creating an additional iCloud or Gmail account. You’d then log in to that on your family’s devices, turn the contacts syncing on, and add the contacts you want to share to that account. But that’s not an elegant solution…

Now, though, my feelings on that have changed. The idea that every Apple device I own should ring when someone calls me? Madness, and especially so on my computer. There is, however, a really easy way to turn off that “feature,” thank goodness. To do that, open the FaceTime program from your Applications folder. Then…

To avoid becoming a victim, you can check out the suggestions I wrote about in an earlier tip; the best advice there is to avoid clicking on emailed links whenever you can. However, it’s also a great idea to periodically check to see what devices and security events are associated with your Gmail account. Hey,…

However, if you DO need to try to recover info before you rush headlong into resetting a lost password, I’d check your browser first for any items you might have typed into that program (like a website login). In Safari, that information is stored in Safari > Preferences > Passwords. Within there, you’ll see a…

That’s…less than ideal. The thing to find out, though, is whether you and your neighbors happen to be using the same wireless channel. Think of it like radio—if you drive through an area with a ton of competing stations, you won’t be able to hear any of them clearly, right? It’s the same with Wi-Fi.…

Afterward, you’ll find a ton of convenient buttons that you can drag into your toolbar for easy use.  That’s…that’s a lot of possibilities. Today we’re going to be talking about three of my favorites—“Show Related Messages,” “Redirect,” and “Move.” I hope you think they’re as handy as I do!   1. Show Related Messages. Some…

They make for a great trip down memory lane. More interestingly to me, they show both the remarkable refinement and relative lack of change in the paradigm of desktop computing. First, let's look at the Apple operating system image: The Evolution of Apple's Operating System[s] from BetterBuys Next, here's the Microsoft image. Note that it…

Yuck. Let’s make that better! On the Mac, the place you’ll change that setting is within System Preferences > Sharing. At the top of that pane, there’s a box for you to type in.  Then to change this on the iPhone or iPad, visit Settings > General > About. You can edit your device’s name at…

_______________________ 1. Mail in OS X. We're all very familiar with this and have been using it for years. Hover the mouse cursor over the suspect hyperlink and a rectangle will pop up showing the actual URL. 2. Safari in OS X. If you have Safari > View > Show Status Bar enabled, you'll see…

________________________ Several things got me thinking about this idea. Of course, as always, I present it as food for thought. It makes no sense to insist that this is something Apple must do. They probably won't. But consider…. First of all, during each Apple earnings report, Tim Cook notes the fact that PC sales are…

If you tap the spacebar when you see a suggestion like the one above, your Mac will helpfully insert the correction, and you’ll be on your way. But what if it keeps trying to correct a word you know is right? I find this happens a lot with technical terms. Thanks for playing, but no.…

_____________________ Introduction. Encryption is a vast and complex subject. There are many nuances and gotchas. In this article, we'll keep it short and sweet for beginners so that it's easily understandable for a specific, simple task. For those who want to go further and expand their knowledge, I'll list some resources at the end of…

The issue that often causes this behavior is what’s called a kernel panic. If that’s the case, you’ll see a window like this once you get back into your user account: Do as it says and click “Report,” and a dialog box with a bunch of technical gobbledegook will appear. You can click the triangle next…

Highlights of the DSM6 enhancements include: Synology's Content Search index is now automatically exposed to the OS X Finder, allowing users to perform truly valuable searches of the data on their network storage devices. Video Station, Synology's movie and TV-show server, will now do offline transcoding to make even more of your media compatible for…

In the way we'll use Loopback today it's best to think of it as a software pipe that pretends it has a hardware device on each end: audio input on one and audio output on the other. This lets you pass audio into it from one app and pull that same audio out of it from…

Click on the “Details” link there, and the window that pops up will give you all of the recent activity associated with your account, including the IP addresses used. The “Sign out of all other web sessions” button near the top is gonna do what we’re talking about in this tip… …but as Google will…

If you click on that, you’ll see why I think it’s so nifty—there are all sorts of options under there. You could choose, say, to sort your messages by whom they’re from, by their subject alphabetically, by their size, or whether they’ve been read. Also, when you pick one of those options, the two bottom…

OS X is based on BSD UNIX Here's the basic outline of this tip. Create a UNIX script with a text editor that contains one or more terminal commands. Make it executable. Double click it in the Finder. It's really quite simple, but there are a few things to be aware of. I'll walk you…

If you pick any mailbox from the sidebar and then choose that, Mail will attempt to, well, rebuild the mailbox, which can help with all sorts of display problems and emails that seem to be missing. Note that if the mailbox in question has a ton of messages, this process can take a while. You…

_________________________ I am right handed. What I discovered in my own case is that my left hand, resting over the left side of the Apple aluminum keyboard, covers all the special function keys. In order to exercise the default operation of CTRL + right arrow or CTRL + left arrow, I have to lift my…

________________________ One of the most overlooked System Preferences in OS X is, in my book, Accessibility. It sits out there in the nether regions beyond Time Machine and looks like something only people with certain handicaps would be interested in. Even its icon could be off-putting. Easy to overlook or dismiss. However, the Accessibility preferences…

Best. Pictures. EVER. In case you don’t know, you can select multiple items by holding down Command and clicking to select each one if they aren’t right next to each other. If you have a ton of pictures all in a row, however, just click to select the first one, then hold down Shift and…

Try using your password manager! I use 1Password, but this tip should work with other password managers as well. Let's say you're looking for a job on indeed.com, and have filled out the site's advanced search from. Have a Web form you need to fill in over and over? 1Password can help. To save the…