Ever need to send a buddy a quick screenshot or file? How about sending a file from your iPhone to your friend on a Mac?
Getting files from one computer to another is a fairly easy task, what with email and services like Dropbox around, but I’ve been using Messages to send files to friends, family, and even myself lately.
Here’s how to do it.
You know those long email threads, conversations, whatever you call them? The ones that run to the hundreds of words, several layers of indentation and quoting? Yeah, of course you do. We all deal with them.
Did you know that you could cut through the confusion with a simple move on your iPhone or iPad when replying to one of those beasts? Yeah, you can be the voice of coherence and reason, cutting to the chase and only replying with specifically selected text in your reply email.
Here’s how to do just that on your iOS device.
As it turns out, I end up having to sign a lot of documents, such as contracts, IRS forms, and the like. Many of these are in PDF form (bravo), and some even let me fill them out via my keyboard (even better).
Unfortunately, they still expect us to print these babies out, sign them with a pen, and then get them back into some sort of digital format, via a scanner or picture with our iPhone or something.
Luckily, Apple’s own Preview makes all that superflous. It’s super easy to get your pen and paper signature onto a PDF. Here’s how.
If you’re an early iOS 7 beta adopter, you might want to restore iOS 6 for a number of reasons. Perhaps you just don’t like the beta experience, preferring a less changeable, buggy iPhone software. Maybe you just want to put the official iOS 7 software on your iPhone when it releases, possibly in early September. Maybe you just miss the iOS 6 version of Maps.
For whatever reason, though, it’s a fairly straightforward process; here’s how to do it.
Network locations are extremely useful if you use your Mac across a variety of networking environments, like a Proxy-laden school building, a super secured enterprise site, or a special set up at home. Each environment could take a ton of extra time setting up the details if you only had one networking setup system.
Luckily, Mac has always had this idea of Locations, a way of setting and saving all the little networking details for each location you use your Mac in. Did you know, however, that you can switch between network locations in the Apple menu? I didn’t, so I figured I’d share what I found out.
There are a host of accessibility options within iOS, and many of them can be the difference between someone being able to use a mobile device and not being able to use it. There are also a ton of reasons why those of us without a disability might want to check them out.
That said, it can be time consuming and even difficult to hop into the Accessibility section to activate specific features, especially if you are dealing with some sort of disability. That’s why Apple has set iOS up to make them easier to access right from the Home button. Here’s how to set it up and use it.
When you drag a bunch of items into a folder in the Finder on your Mac and some of the items in there have the same name, your Mac will ask you if you want to replace the items in the folder you’re dragging to. This is all well and good when you’re trying to do just that, but what about when you want to merge the files from the first folder to the second?
Well, it’s amazingly simple.
Every once in a while, I’m listening to a song via the Music app on my iPhone, or (lately) listening to iTunes Radio on my iPad through a bluetooth speaker in the house, when I want to quickly figure out what’s playing, or maybe mess with the controls, skip a song, or something like that.
Typically, I’d double click the Home button to get a basic controller to pause or skip a song, or click into the home screen, find the Music app, launch it, then tap the Now Playing button, and then make any adjustments.
Now, however, with iOS 7 beta’s new Control Center, you can tap right through to the Now Playing song with a swipe and a tap. Here’s how.
It used to be a no-brainer to enable the Apache web server included with Mac OS X. You’d hop into the System Preferences, fire up the Sharing preference pane, and then you’d be good to go.
Starting in Mountain Lion, however, Apple hasn’t given a user-friendly checkbox as in previous OS X releases. Instead you need a little bit of Terminal magic.
Here’s how to enable and start the Web Service in OS X Mountain Lion.
Sure, there are quite a few keyboard shortcuts to navigate Spotlight, making it more of a power user tool than you’d think.
Did you know, however, that you can reveal found items in the Finder using Spotlight? Me neither. So here’s how.
Over at iPad Insight, Patrick Jordan found this unique feature in YouTube’s new version of its iOS app, and I though it was too cool not to share.
If you’ve used the iOS YouTube app in the past, you know that in order to find a new video, either browsing or searching for it, you had to stop the video you were watching and then perform your search, or scroll through videos on offer.
No longer is that the case – check it out.
Ever end up with a lot of Finder windows floating around your Mac screen? In previous versions of Mac OS X, the choice was to close them all with a keyboard shortcut, Option-Command-W, which will end all your Finder suffering in one short tap.
In Mavericks beta, that still works. Yet Apple has also added another way to deal with multiple Finder windows: merging them. Here’s how.
Google’s Chrome for iOS is a heck of a browser on iOS, and a great alternative to using Safari, except for the fact that it’s not quite as integrated into the experience as Safari is.
Because of that, if you use Chrome and want to clear out your browser data to keep others from checking out what you’ve been doing on the web, you won’t be able to do so in the official Settings app like you can with Safari data.
Here’s how to clear your cache files, browsing history, and any cookies from Chrome in iOS.
I don’t know about you all, but I’ve been getting stuff into a new folder in the Finder the same way as I always have, just like I did way back in OS 7, OS 8, OS 9, and even ten years ago in OS X.
I make a new folder in the Finder using Shift-Command-N, or by selecting New Folder from the Finder menu, then Command- or Shift-click all the files I want to put into that folder, and drag them all over. I’ve heard you can even copy and paste files into a new folder the same way, but I’m kind of old school and don’t mess with that.
Today, though, I read about a totally different way to do this. Color me surprised (and a bit chagrined) to find out that there’s an easier way to put a bunch of items into a new folder in the Finder.
Ever been caught out by a long YouTube video someone emails or sends you via Message that you really don’t have time to watch right then?
That’s where YouTube’s Watch Later playlist comes in handy, but it’s not super easy to find or access on the iOS version of YouTube.
If you want to know how to send a video to your Watch Later list, and then access it again in the future, here’s how.
The Finder in Mac OS X is specifically designed to help you find stuff. In any Finder Window, you can arrange the icons or lists of files alphabetically by Name, by Kind of file, by the Application that opens that file, by Date Last Opened, Added, Modified, or Created, and also by Size and by Label.
In list view, you can also click on the top column title to sort the list in ascending or descending order. It’s a pretty comprehensive way to find your stuff in the Finder, without even having to search for it.
Did you know, however, that you can also arrange Applications by application type (Productivity, Social Networking, Music, Video, and so on)? I didn’t, so here’s a tip on how to do just that.
I’m sure you all know that you can take a photo with your iPhone using the volume up button. If not, do it real quick right now, and prepare to have your entire iPhone photo taking experience changed.
No, really, launch the Camera app, flip that iPhone onto its side, putting it into landscape orientation, and then hold it like a traditional point and shoot camera. Press down on the volume up button to snap a picture. Brilliant!
Camera+ was the first non-Apple app to use this control scheme, at least until Apple put a stop to it by rolling the feature into the actual operating system. Now, in iOS 7 beta, Apple’s added another little fun feature. Here’s how to activate it.
In OS X, all file types have a default application that opens when you double click on them. If you double click on a PDF file or a PNG file, chances are that your Mac will open it in Preview, Apple’s default PDF and image file app. If you’ve given an app like Adobe Reader, for example, permission to set itself as the default PDF app, then all PDFs will open in Reader.
Over time, you may have set apps as default that you no longer want to open your files. Conversely, you might want all JPG files to open in Preview, except one specific JPG file, which you’d like to open in Photoshop. Here’s how to make both of these situations work for you.
Parental controls are a wonderful thing, letting you filter internet content, restrict your kids to certain apps, and even keep them from accessing the Mac during times they should be sleeping or doing homework.
Did you know, then, that you can manage the Parental Controls in OS X from another Mac on your network? This means that you can make changes and add or remove restrictions on the fly from your own Mac, rather than having to brave the bedroom of, say, a grumpy and smelly pre-teen daughter who might not be overjoyed to see you messing about on “her” computer. I mean, hypothetically.
Here’s how to set up your child’s Mac to be able to do this.
Ever go to add a website to your Home Screen in mobile Safari and notice it just looks like a jumbled, unidentifiable mess?
This doesn’t happen too often any more, as most sites have learned how to create a special icon for Home Screen bookmarks on iOS, but every so often, you’ll come across a site that won’t have a custom icon.
When that happens, here’s a quick and easy way to make that Home Screen icon look a bit better.
This one’s for all you Macbook and Magic Trackpad users; you know who you are. Mac OS X comes with Mission Control, a way to see all the open applications running on your Mac. Typically, you can hit the F3 key to bring up Mission Control and see what’s what on your Mac.
Similarly, you can either click on any Desktop Space across the top of Mission Control, or hit Command-Arrow (right or left) to switch to different Desktop Spaces on your Mac. This makes it easy to visually keep things separate. Some folks keep their web browser in one Desktop Space, and their word processing app in another, switching back and forth as they need the respective apps.
If you’re using a trackpad to access your Mac OS X laptop, or you’re using a magic trackpad connected to your Mac desktop, however, there are a couple of cool trackpad gestures you can use to do the same thing.
Notifications in iOS 6 can be annoying, for sure. To dismiss them takes some funky gestures, which we tipped you on a while back.
In iOS 7, however, notifications look different, and — thankfully — are a little easier to dismiss. Here’s how it works.
I saw this tip over at OS X Daily today, and it reminded me of all the times I did this as a Mac IT guy a couple of jobs back.
See, every so often, the Macs where I worked would start to act weird. Nothing truly game-stopping — just little things, stuff that was easily worked around but always a little bit annoying. The first stop when things are weird, for me, was always Repair Permissions in the Disk Utility app. I’d usually then Verify the disk in that very same app, and see if it returned any errors. If not, I’d usually drop into single-user mode and do a file system check.
Here’s how to do just that.
Command-Tab is probably seared into your muscle memory to switch between running applications while on your Mac. I know it is permanently stuck in mine.
You probably also know that Command-Tab can also be used to quit apps as well, right? And hide apps? To be honest, I knew the first tip, but not the second one, which (to me) makes it worth a share.
Back when iOS got “multitasking,” it was a matter of pride in my group of geeky friends to be able to double click the home button on their iPhones and then space three or four of their fingers *just* right to tap a bunch of apps’ little red circles to force quit the apps all at once. “Hey,” they’d say, “why settle for force quitting just one at a time?”
I suppose they had a point, as today’s tip is all about “flick quitting” up to three apps at once on the iPhone, provided said iPhone is running iOS 7 beta.