Dave Klein announces the day’s events at CocoaConf Portland. Photo: David Sinclair. I'm a firm believer in the conference, more so in today's hyperconnected world. It comes down to one simple reason: The “hallway track.” Getting coffee and bumping into someone whose work you've followed for a long time, or having lunch with people talking about…
Kelly Guimont
Articles by Kelly Guimont
OS X Yosemite: How To Make Mail Drop Work For You
An active iCloud account is required. Attachments don't count against your iCloud storage. Attachments expire after 30 days. You can't send a folder full of attachments; you have to compress the folder first. A single message and all attachments can't be more than 5GB. Whatever your attachment may be, you still have to wait for…
Yosemite Spotlight Gets Even More Useful with Flashlight
You decide which plugins to install, then Spotlight can do even more for you. There are a wide variety of plugins available such as Discogs for performing specific searches, one for sending an email right from that Spotlight entry window, and even one to send things straight to your OmniFocus Inbox. Once you download the free Flashlight…
How To Get Batch Change Back in Photos for Mac
Services are a way to work across applications, so if you are in one app, and select some text, you can go to the app menu and choose “Services” to see the set of options available for that selected text. You can see what services are already installed on your system by going to System…
How Smart is a Smarthome That Has to Phone Home?
We are currently experiencing an interruption in MyQ service. You may not be able to access MyQ via your mobile [device] or the website and may be receiving false notifications. Please rest assured; your doors and gates are not opening and all of your personal data is secure and uncompromised. These are false notifications. Our…
Randomly Selected Developers Offered Expedited Apple Watch Delivery
Apple said the purpose of the offer is to give more developers a chance to test their Apple Watch apps as early as possible. A screenshot of the invitation: Apple Developer Invitation According to our developer sources, others who received this offer were all offered the same model Apple Watch. Speculation on the blue sport…
How to Create and Use Network Locations for Mac
First off, you can set up multiple locations in your network settings to adjust what networks are used, or what priority they’re used. If you go to System Preferences > Network, you’ll see that it says “Automatic” at the top: Network Preferences. Check out that Location menu! Where it says “Automatic” is a menu, so…
How To Enable Stealth Mode in Yosemite
Here’s how to lock down your Mac while you’re on public Wi-Fi: First, Launch System Preferences and go to Security & Privacy > Firewall. Make sure Firewall is on. If it isn’t, you’ll need to click the lock in the lower left and enter the admin password to enable it. When it’s on, then go…
iOS 8.3 Disables Access from Third Party File Managers
Apple blocked access of the entire sandbox directory of every installed App since iOS 8.3…Before there is a solution, iFunBox will fail to open data directory of any App if the device is not jailbroken. iFunBox also reported over the weekend they have found a partial work around for those interested. Sandbox access will work…
How To Disable Password Requirements For Free Apps
First, if you have Touch ID enabled, none of the settings will show up at all, so first you have to go to Settings > Touch ID & Passcode to disable Touch ID. Don’t worry though, it’s only temporary. Once Touch ID is off, go to Settings > iTunes & App Store > Password Settings…
How to Find New Emoji Skin Tones, Vulcan Salute in iOS 8.3
As for the expanded emoji keyboard, first of all it’s a continuous scroll from left to right, showing all the emoji available (with a handy title for each section) as opposed to before when you had to tap the tabs to select from different panels. You can tap the options to jump to each selection…
3 Ways to Sync Your iPhone without iTunes on the Mac
There are many reasons why iTunes can be more of a hindrance than a help. Perhaps you don’t spend much time at your computer so syncing your iOS devices to iTunes isn’t a useful way to keep your device backed up, or maybe you don’t use iTunes much so having to spend time learning everything…
Twelve South BaseLift for MacBook: Low Impact, High Usability
Twelve South has released the BaseLift, a small Smart Cover style device that attaches to the bottom of a laptop and elevates the back of your machine to improve the typing angle. It also adds additional protection for those who put laptops, well, in their laps. As with all Twelve South products, the packaging is…
Comparing streaming services
We’ll be comparing four services here: the new Tidal, the elder statesman of music streaming Pandora, Apple-owned Beats Music, and the current leader in streaming music, Spotify. Is Streaming Right For You? First of all, streaming music may not be for you at all. If you have a very limited data plan, or commonly find…
How to Update Any Icon on Your Mac
It’s gotten easier—today, it's less complex to bend icons to your will. Whether you prefer the previous version of an icon, or you’re a big fan of something and you want to make sure it shows up all over your computer, it’s not as complex to change icons these days. First up, icons in OS…
How To Sell, Trade In, or Recycle Old Macs or PCs
You Do Not Need That Performa 5200 Credit: Wikicommons Just like with mobile/handheld devices, the first move is to be certain there isn’t a machine in your current circle that needs upgrading, be it your parents or children or other people who maybe could stand a slightly newer machine. Once you do that, you…
How To Recycle Old iPhones, iPads, and Other Mobile Devices
Just as is the case with old cables, there are a lot of things you can do with your legacy mobile devices, and some of them are really cool. Once you go through the obvious “Hand It Off To A Family Member For Whom It Is An Upgrade” and “Possibly Repurpose For Some Other Nifty…
How To Unload Unneeded Cables from Your Old Electronic Devices
It seems odd to just throw them out, but what should you do with them if you don’t even have the corresponding device anymore? Or more likely, you have all you need and yet everything comes with another micro-USB cable? Having come up against this myself just this weekend, I have some suggestions. First of…
Collaborate on Event Photos with PartySnapper - Fun and Easy
Here’s how it works: You take one iOS device and set it up as the “host” device. Connect it via AirPlay to the device of your choosing (in my case, the Apple TV hooked to my television). Then encourage others to download the free app, and use that to take photos. Once someone gets a…
How to Customize the Finder Toolbar in OS X Yosemite
The Toolbar across the top of Yosemite Finder windows. First of all, here's what you see now: From left to right, we have two arrows for forward and back through navigation, then a block of four buttons for switching views. Then we see a small row of squares on a button, a gear, a share…
OS X Yosemite's Four Finder Views Explained
I'm going to show you how they work and how each one can help you: First, to change the layout of your window, click the View menu in the menu bar and at the top of the menu you can switch between views: These are the view options you're looking for. You can also use…
How to Print Envelopes from Contacts on Your Mac
NOTE: This article covers only the Mac side of printing contacts. It is known throughout the land that printing is looked upon as a dark art, and lo there are various and sundry paths one can take to achieve it. However, the half of the equation where the printer doesn't work right or won't line…
This Is Why You Should Set Up Philips Hue LED Smartbulbs
There are others from companies such as Wink and WeMo, and most of the same concepts apply to these bulbs. Primarily you see two styles of bulbs: the “Hue” bulb which can be adjusted to a variety of colors, and the Hue Lux which is a white bulb that only has brightness adjustments. (Wink and…
Superfish Security Flaw Extends Beyond Lenovo
Lenovo had to send out its CTO to do interviews and try to spin mitigate the PR disaster, which would be fine but there was no discussion of how bad the issue truly is. Then the Department of Homeland Security warned against the software, calling out Lenovo by name and urging users to get the software…