Inexpensive quasi-mesh Wi-Fi, cloud management for your videos, changing your Finder icons and upgrading your Mac’s Wi-Fi to the latest standards are just how this show starts out! From there it’s on to answering your questions about monitoring iOS data usage, looking at PDF data – all of it! – and then your geeks dive into the Wi-Fi danger conspiracy! We promise you’ll learn at least four new things!
John F. Braun
John F. Braun is a software and computer engineer with over 20 years of development experience, and has AS, BS and MS degrees in various computing disciplines, so his friends and colleagues are somewhat surprised that he?s a Mac enthusiast. Having worked in an environment comprised largely of PCs, and watching others wrestle with the horror that is Windows, he's glad to come home to a MacBook Pro and Mac mini at the end of the day.
Articles by John F. Braun
iOS Geek Gab, Managing RAM, Converting Numbers to Excel – Mac Geek Gab 644
A little iOS Geek Gab segment starts the show, discussing batteries – both internal and out – as well as screen protection. Your geeks share their picks and, more importantly, how they pick. Then it’s on to some great tips from both your two favorite geeks and you, including managing RAM, converting Numbers to Excel (without Numbers!), upgrading your Mac mini and more. Press play and enjoy!
Kwikset Premis HomeKit-Compatible Smart Lock
Kwikset recently introduced Premis, the company’s first Apple HomeKit-compabitle touchscreen smart lock. John F. Braun received a demonstration of the new product from Marty Hoffmann, VP of Marketing, and here are the features he thinks you’ll like.
Cognitive Systems Announces Aura Home Monitoring System
Cognitive System recently announced a system that takes a unique approach to monitoring and securing your home. The Aura system uses radio frequencies to detect motion rather than the optical detection used in most systems.
See and Sleep Smarter with the Helia LED Bulb from Soraa
Soraa has announced their Helia LED bulb, which incorporates several lighting and communication innovations not found in other LED bulbs. Todd Antes, Senior Vice President of Marketing, gave us an overview of the benefits of their bulb.
You Scratch Your Head, I’ll Scratch Mine – Mac Geek Gab 643
Cool Stuff Found kicks off this week’s show, with email clients, Wi-Fi Widget(s), combo iPhone/Watch chargers, disk utilities and much, much more. Then, after a few additional tips from you, dear listeners, it’s time for your questions. Topics this week include comparing local vs. Cloud storage for things like your music, videos and documents; memory interleaving and when to use it; solving corrupt user accounts that won’t login; and solving the issues with web pages that are slow to load. Press play and enjoy!
Safari Passwords, Shopping Lists, and Synology RT2600ac Router – Mac Geek Gab 642
Have a website with multiple passwords and Safari always chooses the wrong one? Want a shopping list app to manage as a family? Photos showing greyed-out people? That’s just how this week’s Mac Geek Gab starts, folks. Then it’s on to Dave’s review of the new Synology RT2600ac standalone router, plus some related router questions for good measure. That’s not where it ends, though, because there are more questions and tips answered in here, as well. You’ll just have to listen to find out everything. After all, you must learn at least four new things each week, right? We’re here to help you do just that!
Speeding Up a Sluggish Mac and Cool Stuff Found – Mac Geek Gab 641
Cool Stuff Found today contains lots of things you suggested after listening to recent shows, including tools to help your Mac sleep, help you manage your keyboard shortcuts and macros, privately sync your notes, auto-file your Mail, and free backup storage! Then its on to sharing your tips and answering your questions. Want to learn how to factory reset your AirPods, enable band-steering on your router, or have Siri search Google instead of Bing? Let’s go!
Managing Photos, Fixing Your Apple Watch & Resolving Network Issues – Mac Geek Gab 640
Migrating Photos to a new Mac, managing and syncing your family’s photos, speeding up iOS Spotlight searches, fixing an unresponsive Digital Crown on your Apple Watch and resolving website loading delays are just some of the things you’ll learn from your two favorite geeks in this week’s show! Listen as Dave Hamilton and John F. Braun answer your questions and solve your problems.
Moving Photos, Fixing Mail, Securing Your Network & More – Mac Geek Gab 639
Back from CES, your two favorite geeks have some fun stuff to report about and all of your questions to answer. The latter include things like fixing Mail.app’s CPU-hogging, which hibernatemode to use for your MacBook, and much, much more. Press play and enjoy!
Steel HR Combines Elegance of Analog Watch with Sophistication of Digital
LAS VEGAS — Withings (a Nokia company) was showing Steel HR, a watch that combines the elegance of an analog watch with the features of a smart watch, at CES Unveiled 2017. Rob Le Bras-Brown, Chief Marketing Officer, gave John F. Braun the scoop.
TrackR Delivers New pixel, wallet 2.0, atlas Products, and Alexa Integration
LAS VEGAS — At CES Unveiled 2017, TrackR demonstrated several new products in their line of personal item management devices. In other words, they help you find not only your stuff, but stuff that other people have misplaced. Mia Costa, Vice President of Marketing, gave John F. Braun an overview.
Happy New Year from Your Two Favorite Geeks – Mac Geek Gab 638
Need to use Mini DisplayPort monitor with your USB-C Mac? Need to make screen recordings? Need a Dropbox replacement? Your two favorite geeks have you covered with these questions and others. Cool Stuff Found segment includes a way to control your reboot sounds, your clipboard, and your unwanted robocalls. Plus, another AirPods alternative. Download and enjoy!
Christmas Morning with Your Two Favorite Geeks – Mac Geek Gab 637
Everyone got AirPods except you? No worries, Dave and John have you covered with some AirPods alternatives. Otherwise it’s listener questions dominate the show, as usual, with topics ranging from where to store your iTunes Media, network topology, replacements for Dropbox’s missing Public folder and much more. Download today and enjoy!
The First Rule of The Darknet Is Don’t Talk About The Darknet – Mac Geek Gab 636
It’s true, John and Dave – and you, fellow listeners – have gone acronym crazy! BYOD is discussed, as is TOR browser on iOS and elsewhere. RAM performance under Sierra makes an appearance as do a TON of tips, especially one for speeding up Safari on slower Macs. VPN makes an appearance in this acronym show (as it should!), and then we have some gift guide suggestions from your fellow listeners. Press play and enjoy!
Filing Mail, Router Follow-up, and Geeky Gift Guides! – Mac Geek Gab 635
Filing Mail, RAM suggestions, DOCSIS 3.1 and accessing your data from The Dark Side are just some of the topics of questions answered by John and Dave this week. Then it’s on to a follow-up from the router show with a sandwich of geeky holiday gift suggestions from your two favorite geeks!
Mail Tips & Solving Generic Dock Icons – Mac Geek Gab 634
Quick tips to start: copying mail (instead of moving it), editing your default Touch Bar, a new way to create pinned tabs in Safari, ejecting an external Blu-ray, and disabling notifications. After that it’s time to answer your questions about secure email, SSD upgrades, keychain errors, portable audio recording setups and much more. Press play and enjoy!
Deep Dive: How to Choose a Router in 2016? – Mac Geek Gab 633
This week we answer all your questions and queries about which router you should buy and how to go about deciding this for yourself. Standalone vs. mesh, eero vs. Orbi, 2×2 vs 4×4, we cover it all. After listening to this episode you’ll have both the information and even some deals to be able to make your choice and know you’ve got the right Wi-Fi for your home.
MGG 632: The Truth and Its Relatives
Your questions answered, including those about Sierra’s keyboard viewer, recommended OS and RAM configurations for older (and newer!) Macs, Stopping apps from launching on login, finding photos on your iPhone, Bluetooth interference and more. Then it’s Cool Stuff Found and some tips. How can you go wrong? By NOT downloading this episode.
MGG 631: The Odd Couple Episode
We asked, you shared your top Mac apps, we share them back! Some great additions in the list here, too. Some mutual favorites and some surprises. Listen to hear if yours made the list! Then it’s on to discussion about trackpad scrolling, iOS Mail swiping, ripping movies (with subtitles!) and more. Download, listen and… enjoy!
MGG 630: Label Your Cables!
This episode is all about geeks helping other geeks. First it’s tips from you helping us and other listeners, including a way to bypass macOS Sierra’s network-mounting password dialog! Then we help you with importing just your Health data, musicians using an iPad at gigs, migrating data from one iPhone to another with an older Mac, managing different photo clouds and much more. Join us by downloading and enjoy!
MGG 629: Not All USB-C Is Created Equal
Considering migrating to a new Mac? How about thinking of a new Cable Modem? What about managing Wi-Fi speeds with lots of Apple devices which share their Wi-Fi networks via iCloud? Your fellow MGG listeners had those questions until they asked here and your two favorite geeks answered! Listen to John and Dave discuss all of this and more, including sharing some tips from you, too!
MGG 628: Cool Stuff Found and The DNS Achilles Heel
Cool Stuff Found includes how to keep Safari from opening iTunes automatically, a new USB circuit tester, bluetooth stereo speaker, a better way to backup your iPhone and more. Then it’s on to your questions, including a segment on managing your iPhone from the new Console app in macOS Sierra. Plus, your two favorite geeks talk through this week’s DNS outage and how they got around it. Download today and enjoy!
MGG 627: It's a Kludge!
Did you know that Safari can auto-close a newly-launched tab when you’re finished reading it? That’s just one of the things you’ll learn in today’s MGG. Dropbox’s accessibility hacks, editing EXIF on iOS, the security of hidden Wi-Fi networks, enabling Universal Clipboard, and managing macOS Sierra’s multiple monitors are more. Plus, have you ever wanted to know the origins of the word, ‘kludge”? Download today and listen!