How-To - page 16

Some lucky first-day owners of the new M3 MacBook Pro unboxed their machines Tuesday to discover a reversal of fortune: Their new Macs arrived with a broken version of macOS that can’t install software updates.

Some MacBook Pros shipped to customers with an unreleased (well, more like unintentionally released) build of macOS Ventura 13.5. This version can’t be updated to macOS Sonoma through the standard Software Update feature in System Preferences.

Here’s how to fix the admittedly rare problem.

There are a lot of awesome features in iOS 17 — Contact Posters, StandBy, Safari profiles, shared passwords and much, much more. Here’s a simple to-do list on how to make the most of Cupertino’s latest and greatest iPhone operating system.

If you haven’t looked at any of Apple’s accessibility features because you’re not blind or deaf, and don’t think they would make your life easier, you might be surprised.

Apple built a handful of accessibility features into iOS 17 that let people with various disabilities use the iPhone in new and unexpected ways. However, absolutely anyone can take advantage of these tools, which prove surprisingly helpful in certain situations.

You can already get live captions to watch videos silently, lock your phone into one app to keep people from snooping around, play soothing ocean or forest sounds and more.

In iOS 17, five accessibility features take things even further. Assistive Access simplifies your phone to its bare features to make it easier to use; Live Speech and Personal Voice let you type on the keyboard to speak using your own voice; Detection Mode and Point and Speak help you get around using your iPhone camera.

Our hands-on demo will show you what these features can do for you.

Upgraded to macOS Sonoma? You probably noticed by now that clicking on your Mac’s desktop automatically hides all open windows, with the focus moving to your widgets and desktop shortcuts.

This is the new “Click wallpaper to reveal desktop” feature in the new Mac operating system. If you find this functionality annoying, here’s how to turn it off. That way, you can safely click your Mac’s desktop again.

There’s a way to prevent your iPhone from blaring out a loud alarm whenever the feds or local governments use the Wireless Emergency Alerts system. Setting your device so it ignores these alerts is actually quite easy, though it is more complicated than putting your iPhone in Silent mode.

Here’s how.

The world is full of USB drives, from portable thumbdrives to full external SSDs. Happily, you’re not closed off from these just because you use an iPhone or iPad. Connecting to external drives has gotten much easier than it used to be.

And you’ll have full read/write access to everything on the drive. You won’t even need to install any software, as the app you need comes preinstalled on your device.

You can fit two shortcuts into one small widget in iOS 17, a significant change for power users of Apple’s time-saving Shortcuts app. A lot of shortcuts I make are in pairs — and now, you can put two shortcuts of a kind in one small space on your Home Screen.

Shortcuts, if you’re not aware, let you automate the things you do most often on your iPhone, Mac, iPad or Apple Watch. For instance, you can create a shortcut that sets a Focus mode when you get to work, one that suggests easy-to-remember passwords, one for converting units — the possibilities are endless. (Read Apple’s helpful Shortcuts guide if you want to familiarize yourself with the powerful app.)

Home Screen widgets are a great way to launch the shortcuts you use every day. On the iPhone, where space is limited, fitting twice as many shortcuts without losing any icons could be a game changer for your Home Screen. Let me show you how to set it up.

Recent iPhones offer Emergency SOS via satellite, but not every mishap is life threatening. When non-emergency help is needed, Roadside Assistance via satellite is available. It’s a feature that debuted with the new iPhone 15 series but the iPhone 14 series can use it, too.

A video from Apple Support demonstrates how to use it.

The next major macOS release is here. Dubbed macOS Sonoma, the update packs several usability changes that will help further boost your productivity.

“macOS Sonoma is now available as a free software update, bringing a rich set of new features to the Mac that make work and play even more powerful,” Apple said in a press release Tuesday. “With macOS Sonoma, desktop widgets unlock a new way to personalize the Mac and get more done, while stunning new screen savers, big updates to video conferencing and Safari, along with optimized gaming make the Mac experience better than ever.”

Apple typically drops major new macOS builds in October. But this time, it is releasing macOS Sonoma in September, possibly because it is a relatively minor update.

If you’ve ever been the victim of unsolicited dick pics, or “cyberflashing,” you can now automatically hide obscene images in iOS 17. Censoring NSFW sexts can give you an extra line of defense against unwanted, creepy texts. This feature, new in iOS 17, puts suspected nude images and videos behind a blurred gray background.

Unsolicited dick pics are a widespread problem. Among adults who reported receiving nude images, 91% of respondents say they were sent without their consent, according to Indiana University research. And one shocking study published in the Journal of Sex Research found 50% of heterosexual men admitted to sending them!

This new Sensitive Content Warning feature in iOS 17 isn’t just for protecting children. A lot of people likely will find it useful.

macOS Sonoma may not have the same buzz as iOS, but there are loads of new features this year to try out on your Mac. You can get beautiful Apple TV-style aerial screensavers, widgets on your desktop, powerful enhancements to Safari and more.

macOS Sonoma will be released at about 10 AM Pacific on Tuesday, September 26. Here are the 36 best features you can look for after you update.

With iOS 17 now available to all, you no longer need to be enrolled in Apple’s beta program to get your hands on it. There are good reasons why you might not want to run prerelease software on your iPhone any more.

Here’s how to pull your iPhone out. It’s easy and only takes a minute. Maybe less

If you have an aging Intel-based iMac or Mac mini that’s slowing down like an old codger, today’s featured iMac setup shows a relatively simple way to revitalize your machine and keep using it.

All you need is an external solid state drive (SSD) and the knowledge, below, to make it your computer’s replacement startup disk.

What’s new in iOS 17? This is a big year for iPhone and iPad. You should definitely check out the biggest new features — Contact Posters and Standby — first. But there are dozens of other great features for you to learn, explore and take advantage of, too.

iOS 17 is out now. I have all the 50 best tweaks and changes organized in this overview.

Apple is about to launch a cool new watch face for the Apple Watch Ultra called “Modular Ultra.” If you’re looking for more variety, check out the 50 best Apple Watch faces to find the perfect look for your device.
The new face does a lot: It allows up to eight complications, including the customizable bezel that can show water depth, elevation or seconds. I think it looks super-cool. And just wait until you see the night mode.

If you saw the new watch face during the Apple Watch Ultra 2 segment of Apple’s “Wonderlust” event Tuesday and want it right now, you’re in luck: It works with the original Apple Watch Ultra and is already available in the latest watchOS 10 beta.

Here’s how to download, install and customize it.

iOS 17 brings with it a lot of new features to the apps you use to communicate every day: iMessage, FaceTime — and last and certainly least — Phone. If you’re trying to call someone and have a missed connection, you have many more options for leaving them a message to pick up later. Changes to iMessage bring small but impactful improvements to stickers, threaded replies and sharing your ETA.

iOS 17 is out now. If you bought a new iPhone 15, you’ve got it already. Otherwise, head over to Settings > General > Software Update to get it. Upgrading may take about 20 minutes after downloading, so make sure you don’t start it at a bad time.

Adobe wants to help students accustomed to old-fashioned paper textbooks get over the transition to PDF textbooks. The company points out that its free reader for the digital format does a lot more than display text and images, and many of these features are ideal for students.

The software developer highlighted five of the benefits of the free Mac application for those going to class with a PDF textbook.

You can split up a big purchase across four smaller payments using Apple Pay Later. Unlike other similar services like Klarna, Afterpay and Affirm, there’s no interest — you pay the exact same amount of money as if you were purchasing at once.

Payments are expected every two weeks, matching the most common paycheck schedule in the United States. It’s easy to use and transparent about what you’ll pay when; it couldn’t be more straightforward.

The easiest and cheapest way to add Apple’s CarPlay to any vehicle is with a cheap Amazon Fire tablet and a USB CarPlay dongle.

You don’t need to buy an expensive new car stereo, nor spend the weekend ripping out your dash and fiddling with wiring. Adding a Fire tablet is very plug-and-play, and instantly makes a big difference. It cost me less than $100 and gave my old pre-Bluetooth stereo a new breath of life. Now I have a big, beautiful, 8-inch screen for maps and directions.

However, it took me a while to find the right combination of gear. Plus, you should consider a few things before taking the plunge with this DIY wireless CarPlay hack.

The second iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 public betas became available Monday so anyone who wants to start tinkering with the new features can try these well before the autumn release.

Among the more significant changes in iOS are personalized contact posters in the Phone app, home screen widgets go interactive, and autocorrect is smarter. iPadOS gets many of those same features, as well as signifi can’t Lock screen improvements.

Want to try the changes out for yourself? We’ll show you how.

If you miss the Twitter icon, you’re not alone. But there’s good news: You can easily change the app’s new X icon back to Twitter’s blue bird on your Home Screen by using a shortcut.

While it’s too late for Elon Musk to backtrack on many of the questionable business decisions he made since buying Twitter, you can at least patch over this latest one using my free downloadable Shortcut.

If you’re still using X, née Twitter, you might want the bright blue bird back on your Home Screen. I’ll show you how to get it.

Soccer legend Lionel Messi recently joined Major League Soccer club Inter Miami CF, and Apple TV+ hopes to score off the Argentine star’s high-profile arrival. The streaming service is offering a range of MLS Season Pass content complementing the games it will air, starting July 21 with Leagues Cup coverage.

“Lionel Messi joining Inter Miami marks a historic moment for the sport in the U.S. and reflects the incredible momentum behind Major League Soccer,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services, in a press release Friday. “We couldn’t be more excited to give fans around the world the opportunity to watch the greatest footballer of all time on MLS Season Pass.”

 When you want to work or watch a movie without distractions, turn on Do Not Disturb on your iPhone. A new Apple video shows how to activate this mode. To learn more, visit this detailed guide.

The activation process is simple enough that this Apple Support video mostly serves as a reminder that Do Not Disturb is available.

Apple launched in mid July a trio of Rapid Security Responses to fix urgent security problems in iOS 16.5.1, macOS Ventura 13.4.1 and iPadOS 16.5.1. It was then forced to withdraw them, but they have since been debugged and re-released.

These are the latest entries in a relatively new system created to quickly fix security holes without requiring a full OS update.

Threads is the new social media platform with Twitter-like features, coming from Instagram. As on Twitter, you can make short text posts with a few attached images or video, write replies, quote posts, repost them, etc. But you’re not starting fresh again: You sign in with your Instagram account and instantly access the same network of people who you follow and all your followers.

Since Twitter’s slow-burn downfall began last year, a few hot new replacements have been propped up, with varying degrees of staying power. Mastodon is the open-source, volunteer-driven network that courted the nerdy types in the tech community — but no one else. Bluesky, backed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, has been scaling slowly on an invitation system. Post, T2 and countless others were the fashion of the day but burned out fast.

Threads has three great things going for it: It’s incredibly easy to join, it’s built off your existing network of friends, and it’s very simple to use. If you liked Twitter, you’ll like Threads. While I don’t like Threads as much as Mastodon, its future interoperability with the open-source alternative means we can all be happy on whatever service we choose and stay in touch.