A revamped Control Center, a new app, and new Settings are just the tip of the iceberg.
Jeff Butts
Jeff Butts is a seasoned tech aficionado with deep roots in the Apple ecosystem. Starting his journey in the early 1980s by experimenting with hardware, Jeff has always been driven by a desire to get the most out of technological devices. His expertise has led him to prominent roles in the industry, including a nearly three-year stint as a Reporter at AppAdvice and an impressive seven-year tenure as a Writer/Editor for Byrnes Publishing, LLC. More recently, Jeff lent his technical insights to HotHardware, Inc. as a Tech Editor. With his extensive experience and unwavering commitment to providing valuable content, Jeff continues to be a trusted voice for readers keen on Apple products and innovations.
Articles by Jeff Butts
Apple Will Reinvent Home Music with HomePod
It looks and sounds terrific, and should fill a marked void in Apple’s product offerings.
Amazon Prime Video Is Coming to Apple TV
You’ll be able to watch your favorite shows and movies from Amazon on your set-top box.
Foxconn Source Spills Details on iPhone X, Says AR Glasses Likely to be Cancelled
Reddit has exploded with this information, which includes details about iPhone X, MacBooks, and Apple’s unannounced AR glasses.
Get Time Machine on Your iPhone With iMazing Mini
Time Machine on macOS is an amazingly elegant backup solution. When it comes to iPhone backups, there really hasn’t been anything like Time Machine. The team behind iMazing recognized this, and have recently released the public beta of software that brings Time Machine to iOS. iMazing Mini is available for download now, and it’s a free app. With iMazing Mini, you can take “snapshots” of your devices. These are incremental backups that you can roll back to at any time. DigiDNA optimized iMazing Mini to store dozens of backups without crowding your hard drive. You can view your data easily within the full-blown version of iMazing. Probably the best feature, though, is that you can go back in time and restore any specific version of your backup quickly and easily. Of course, it’s also nice that the software is free without any ads or paid cloud storage.
macOS: Disable Video Autoplay in Safari
You’ll be glad to finally be able to open a CNN web site without an ad or other video blaring at you right from the start.
Safari: How to Check for Malicious Extensions
Melissa Holt shows you how to check for malicious and unwanted Safari extensions on your Mac.
The 5 Best Hackintosh Graphics Cards
Any of these graphics cards will work well with your Hackintosh build.
macOS: Archiving Old Contacts
Melissa Holt has a few pointers on how to trim down who is in your Contacts list without committing to losing those entries forever.
The 5 Best PC Motherboards for Creating a Hackintosh
These substitutes for the Mac’s logic board will help you get your Hackintosh started.
Tell the FCC Exactly How You Feel about Ringless Voicemail
Telling the FCC what you think is purposefully difficult, but it’s vital you do so.
macOS: Linking Contact Cards Together
If your contacts list contains duplicated data because you’re using more than one account to sync (like, say, both a Google one and your iCloud one), Melissa Holt has a fix to link them together.
Comprehensive Guide to Mac Trackpad Gestures and Force Touch
Jeff Butts examines the Mac trackpad gestures available within macOS Sierra, explaining how to enable and use them.
macOS: Setting Your Default Printer
macOS always looks for the last printer you used, but it’s easy to change that to a specific printer.
NFC on iPhone Can Be Unlocked, but Should You Care?
While NFC might always be limited to Apple Pay officially, more advanced users have been hoping the technology will be unlocked for other purposes. A popular jailbreak developer has done that, and Jeff Butts thinks it’s great for some and unimportant for most people.
Privacy: Twitter Giveth and Taketh Away
Twitter has updated its privacy policy and tools, but it isn’t necessarily for the better. Jeff Butts finds some things to like about the changes, but the social media network ditching Do Not Track and beginning to share more of your data is a recipe for trouble.
iCloud Drive: How to See the Status of Uploads
If you’ve ever uploaded a bunch of files to iCloud Drive from your Mac, you may have wondered how to track the progress of your file transfer. This Quick Tip will cover just that (plus a couple of other handy tricks for the Finder)!
macOS: Great Wallpaper is Hidden in Your Mac's Screensaver Collection
Many people love to change their wallpaper often, but finding terrific images usually requires scouring the Internet for photographs the right size. Jeff Butts has learned, courtesy of Reddit, that there are some perfect images right on the Mac, hidden in the Screensaver folder.
iCloud and iWork: Using On-Demand Downloads
Using iCloud Drive? Then you need to know how to download all of your Pages, Numbers, or Keynote files to your iOS devices automatically. This’ll definitely save you some headaches if you need access to your spreadsheets when you head out into an area with sketchy cell coverage!
Could Alexa and Siri Prevent or Report Child Abuse?
With connected devices and voice assistants becoming more common in our households, children are seeing them as friends. Sometimes, they might even see the device as a trusted confidant. Could that encourage legislators to make the devices report child abuse? Jeff Butts has been thinking hard about that, and suggests it might not be a terrible idea.
Amazon's Alexa Calling Feature Works From Your iPhone, too
Amazon’s Alexa Calling feature works great on the Echo and Echo Dot, from the testing TMO staff have done so far. Jeff Butts and Jeff Gamet also took the time to check out how the feature works from the Alexa app on the iPhone. Here’s what they found out, and how you can use it, too.
4 Tricks for Using Bookmarks Folders in Safari
For today’s Quick Tip, we’re going to cover some features of bookmarks folders in Safari on the Mac. Using a few handy-dandy shortcuts, you can open a bunch of your sites in new tabs or replace the existing ones! Just don’t do one thing when you meant to do the other, all right?
How to Prevent Photos and iTunes from Opening Automatically
If you’re getting sick of watching programs bounce in your Dock just because you plugged your iPhone into your Mac to charge it, then boy, have we got a Quick Tip for you! Melissa Holt’s going to tell us how to stop Photos and iTunes from opening automatically.
iOS: If You 3D Touch Call from Phone App, Fun Stuff Happens
Jeff Butts found a cool new trick his iPhone could do this weekend. From the Phone app, you can 3D Touch call a number to bring up quick and useful actions. Check out how it works and decide whether it’s useful for you or not.