Apple tips, tricks, hints & hacks since 2013 / https://xitter.cf/t.co/8AendGGrQk / Was a best-selling book, is now a website / Written by Macworld UK writer Keir Thomas.
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Joined November 2015
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"Hide my Email" seems to be useless because it has the same issue as iCloud email... invisible deletion of what Apple considers to be spam emails, with zero user notification or choice. A very long running problem.
I was today years old when I discovered the keys for a MacBook Pro and a Magic Keyboard are identical. Useful if a key breaks. But buy an old Magic Keyboard (or inexpensive set of replacement keycaps) and you could have a unique white-keyboard MacBook Pro.
For over a decade I've used Google Workplace for email. It was free. And now... This I what I see if I login, rather entertainingly. Google is deleting the accounts if I don't pay-up. Ah well. Goodbye @Google! Let me know how it goes with that. support.google.com/a/answer/…
The end of a narrative curve. Once upon a time, Internet Explorer was EVERYTHING to Microsoft. It's why it invested in Apple in 1997—to get IE onto the Mac platform, too. Apple today owes its existence to the hated browser. theguardian.com/technology/2…
Frustrating: no reviewers discuss RAM in Apple products (RAM≠storage!). iPad Air 2022 doubles the RAM to 8GB, from 4GB in 4th gen model. That's a huge difference. It means it's likely to be useful 1 or 2 years longer. Similarly, iPhone Pros have more RAM than non-Pro models.
It’s 2022. Why hasn’t @Apple added a feature where you can make a family member’s phone buzz or make a sound when they’ve lost it in the house? Ringing it works, I guess, but surely there’s a simpler way?
Me: Right-clicks word and selects Add to Dictionary.
Microsoft Word: Awesome! I’ll never bother you about that word ever again!
Me: Uses word with possessive apostrophe.
Microsoft Word: What the fuck is this?
Wow! I had no idea that mouse/trackpad and cursor support for iPad is enabled for iPads as old as the Air 2! Just been trying it now with my old Magic Mouse and keyboard, and it works amazingly. Transforms the iPad into a backup laptop for work.
Weird that Photos on Mac has effectively full OCR now, so you can select text in pictures. But Preview hasn't got this. So if you open a PDF that contains scanned-in pages, there's still no way to select text.
Apple's got a very mixed-up online store at the mo. It's like nodody's told it about the supply chain issues. "Last-minute gifts!" it says. Hmmm, maybe it's time to replace my old iPad! Oh... Delivery February 2022. Still, apparently I'd get "Extended Xmas returns until 8 Jan".
I've been gifted a £50 App Store gift card. Which app or game that you've paid for have you thought was either essential or genuinely worth the money—no matter how high the asking price?
I'm so blown away by the fact the MacBook Pro 14in has essentially the same performance as the MacBook Air. Yet the reviewers nearly all say the 14in is the only choice. It shows how astonishingly well Apple controls the narrative around their products.
When you get a new iPhone or Mac, @Apple should give you a personalised user guide based on all the cool stuff that’s arrived since you last upgraded. This could be via the Tips app: “Hey, now you’ve switched from an iPhone 8 to an iPhone 13 you should know about the following…”
Little known fact: As part of its health features, the iPhone includes an app to help you sleep. Just open the Apple TV app, and select to watch Foundation.
So am I right in discovering that Private Relay doesn’t work with captive portal wi-if (eg the WiFi offered in public spaces)?
Looking at the iPhone 13, I'm pretty sure Apple's policy now is simply to ensure people replacing their iPhones stay with iPhone.
Feeling smug. Nearly six years ago (mid-2015) I bought a 15in MacBook Pro. Core i7 2.8GHz, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD. The last "great" Intel laptop from Apple. And today, after putting in a 3rd fresh battery, and a new trackpad (surprisingly cheap!), it's STILL a workhorse. Perfection.
Somehow I scratched a tiny spot on the screen that caused a dead pixel. This is invisible day-to-day. And the thin rubber seal around the screen lid has started to perish. The 16in 2019 Intel MacBook Pro I use at work – its successor – is horrible in comparison.