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July 27, 2019

Use macOS’s Guest Account to Protect Your Privacy from Temporary Users

Use macOS’s Guest Account to Protect Your Privacy from Temporary Users

We’ve all had it happen. “Can I use your Mac for a minute to check my email?” The answer can be “Yes,” but to keep people from poking around on your Mac, have your visitor log in as Guest. To enable the Guest account, go to System Preferences > Users & Groups. If the lock at the bottom left is closed, click it and enter your admin credentials. Then click Guest User in the list, and select “Allow guests to log in to this computer.” To switch to the Guest account, go to the Apple menu and choose Log Out YourAccountName to access the login screen. Your guest can then click the Guest User icon, at which point they’ll have a clean account to work in. When they log out, the account—including any files they created or downloaded—will be deleted, thus protecting their privacy as well.

(Featured image by Apple)

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July 27, 2019
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July 26, 2019

Buy Quality Cables to Avoid Possible Device Damage or Even Fires

It’s tempting to buy cheap Lightning and USB-C cables, but it can be a false economy if that inexpensive cable fries your iPhone or MacBook. Read on for more about how to keep your cables working for the long run.
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July 26, 2019
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July 25, 2019

Use Spotlight on the Mac to Convert Units, Track Flights, Find Movies, and More!

Among all the new stuff in macOS is a solid performer that too many Mac users overlook: Spotlight. Did you know you can use it to do currency conversions, track flights, check movie showtimes, and more?
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July 25, 2019
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July 24, 2019

The Secret Trick That Lets You Paste Phone Numbers into the Phone App

The Secret Trick That Lets You Paste Phone Numbers into the Phone App

Most iOS apps and many Web sites make phone numbers “hot” so you can tap them to call. But it’s not uncommon to run across a number that’s formatted oddly or broken across a line of text such that it can’t be recognized. Just because iOS can’t recognize it doesn’t mean you have to memorize the number temporarily or flip back and forth to the Phone app to type it in it. Here’s a workaround. Double-tap the start of the phone number to select it, and then drag the rightmost blue handle to extend the selection to the entire number. Tap Copy in the popover that appears to copy it. Then switch to the Phone app, tap Keypad at the bottom, and then tap in the blank white area at the top where typed numbers would appear. When a Paste button appears, tap it, and if the Phone app recognizes the number correctly, tap the green Call button to place the call.

(Featured image by Markus Spiske temporausch.com from Pexels)

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July 24, 2019
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July 11, 2019

Here’s How to See Full URLs in Safari’s Smart Search Field

Here’s How to See Full URLs in Safari’s Smart Search Field

By default, Safari on the Mac hides full Web addresses—technically known as URLs—from you, showing just the site name in the Smart Search field at the top of the window. If you click in the field or press Command-L, the full URL appears, which is good for checking that you’re really where you think you should be and not on some dodgy site. It’s also useful if you need to copy just a portion of the URL to share or otherwise work with. To make that check easier, go to Safari > Preferences > Advanced and next to Smart Search Field, select “Show full website address.” Then you can verify that the URL looks right with a glance.

(Featured image by Matthew T Rader from Pexels)

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July 11, 2019
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Never Send Someone a Password in Mail or Messages: Do This Instead!
July 1, 2019

Never Send Someone a Password in Mail or Messages: Do This Instead!

One of the big no-nos with passwords is sending them to other people as plain text in email or a text message conversation. You presumably trust your recipient with the password, but what if their email was hacked or phone stolen? Instead, always use a site like 1ty.me or One-Time Secret, which lets you turn a password into a Web link that can be opened only once. (Not sure about those sites, we have built our very own password sharing site, secret.creativetechs.com that you can use.) Send that link to the recipient, and when they get the password out, they can store it in a secure password manager like 1Password or LastPass.

(Featured image by Kristina Flour on Unsplash)

July 1, 2019
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July 1, 2019

Some May Like It Hot… But Your Technology Prefers to Stay Cool

How hot is too hot for your Apple devices? You may be surprised by the answer.
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July 1, 2019
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June 29, 2019

Use Dropbox’s Selective Sync to Save Space on Small Drives

Use Dropbox’s Selective Sync to Save Space on Small Drives

If you’re like many of our clients who use Dropbox intensively, you have a desktop Mac with a large drive and a MacBook with much less drive space. How do you prevent your large Dropbox account from overwhelming the laptop Mac’s available storage? The answer is Dropbox’s Selective Sync feature. On the MacBook, click the Dropbox icon in the menu bar, click your avatar in the upper-right corner, and choose Preferences. In the Preferences window, click Sync and then click the Choose Folders to Sync button. Deselect the folders you want to prevent from syncing to the MacBook and click Update. If you need to access any files in those folders from the MacBook, go to dropbox.com in your Web browser instead, or adjust your Sync preferences to bring in the needed folder.

(Featured image based on a photo by Daniele Levis Pelusi on Unsplash)

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June 29, 2019
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June 25, 2019

Customize Your Mac’s Dock for Increased Productivity

Customize Your Mac’s Dock for Increased Productivity

By default, Apple populates your Mac’s Dock with all sorts of apps and arranges them in a particular order. But there’s no rhyme or reason to the defaults, and you shouldn’t be afraid to add, remove, and rearrange apps on your Dock. To add an app, drag its icon from the Applications folder to the desired spot on the Dock. To remove an app you never use, drag its icon far enough off the Dock that a Remove tag appears above the icon and then let go. To arrange the Dock icons in the order that makes the most sense to you, just drag each icon to your preferred location. We generally like to put our most-used apps in the left-most or top-most spots.

(Featured image by StockSnap from Pixabay)

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June 25, 2019
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June 20, 2019

Apple Issues Voluntary Recall for Certain 2015 15-inch MacBook Pro Units

Apple Issues Voluntary Recall for Certain 2015 15-inch MacBook Pros

Heads up! If you’re using an older 15-inch MacBook Pro—the version with lots of ports that predates the current Thunderbolt 3 models—Apple has started a recall program to replace batteries that could explode and catch on fire. (We’re not kidding.) The affected MacBook Pro models were sold between primarily between September 2015 and February 2017, but to find out if your 15-inch MacBook Pro is affected, enter its serial number into Apple’s recall page. If it is included in the recall, shut it down and stop using it immediately! Contact Apple for a free battery replacement, and if you need any assistance, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.

(Image courtesy of Apple)

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June 20, 2019
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