MacMost: Archives

Yesterday Apple announced new iPhones, a new Apple TV and a new Apple Watch. Here are 23 details and other announcements that you may have missed. Some of these were not even mentioned during the event, but simply posted to the website and through updates later in the day.

Apple held its first special announcement event at the new Steve Job Theater on the new Apple campus, announcing new iPhones, Apple TV and Apple Watch. The new iPhone 8 and 8 Plus replaces the 7 models with a glass back, better specifications and wireless charging. The new iPhone X will come out later and will have a new type of screen and even better specifications. A new Apple TV offers 4K video, and the Series 3 Watch connects directly to wireless networks.

Join me at https://twitter.com/rosenz where I will be tweeting live as we watch the Apple event today (10am pacific, 1pm eastern). Hope to provide good commentary and analysis. You can watch the live video from Apple here: https://www.apple.com/apple-events/september-2017/

Here is the archive of my tweets:

If you create a pie chart in Mac Numbers you will get a slice for each row, even if that row is very small. You can use a series of techniques to create a second table and set all of the smaller values to 0, moving the sum of those values to a new row. Then you can create a pie chart from that second table that shows these small values grouped together.

Another fall Apple event is almost upon us, but this time the experts aren’t too sure what we will hear. It is probable that the only new hardware at this event will be new iPhones. There may be an update to the Apple Watch as well. But don’t expect to hear anything about new Macs. Apple announced and released many new Mac models this year already, including the iMac Pro which should be coming at the end of the year.

Siri can be a useful tool for performing tasks on your Mac without needing to type or navigate through apps. You can ask Siri to launch apps, change preferences, do math, check email, play music, search for files and photos and many other computing tasks. You can also ask Siri to look up information online.

When you choose files to upload on websites, you often have to dig around to find the right file. However, if you know a few tricks you can find the file quickly and easily. Some websites offer advanced functionality to make it even easier to upload files.

You can use bookmarks in iBooks on your Mac or iOS devices to remember specific pages in the books you are reading. You can add as many bookmarks as you like, see them in a list, and easily jump to those pages or remove the bookmarks. Bookmarks will sync between your devices as long as you have your settings on all devices configured correctly.

If your Mac has a wired connection to the Internet, and there is no Wi-Fi network available, you can use your Mac as a Wi-Fi network to connect other devices like iPhones, iPads, laptops and game devices. By using Internet Sharing in System Preferences, you can create a network and set a name and password to allow access. This comes in handy in situations where you need to connect Wi-Fi-only devices, but no Wi-Fi is available.

If you travel between time zones and want to make sure your calendar event times reflect exactly the time you want them to, then turn on Time Zone Support in Calendar preferences. This will insure that times don't shift as you move around. Plus, you can set times with specific time zones and see those time zones reflected in the start and end times for the events.

If you are new to Mac, then the uses for the red, yellow and green window buttons at the top left corner of every Mac window may not be obvious. The red button closes the window. The yellow button minimizes the window, placing it in the Dock. The green button can either take the window into full screen mode, or maximize the window to its logical size.

You can create smart playlists in iTunes that contain songs you have either Loved or rated highly. These playlists will automatically update when you Love or rate new songs. They will also sync both ways with your iPhone so you can listen to them and update them while on the go.

You can use the page layout tools in Pages to create brochures. The hardest part is to set the guides so you can fold the printed brochure into thirds. Then you can use text boxes and images to fill the brochure. You can also link text boxes so text flows from one box to the other.

Learn how to use Pages for basic page layout tasks. You can place text and image elements to create projects like newsletters and sales sheets. By placing guides you can easily place items that line up. You can link text boxes together so the text flows from one to the other. You can add captions and other elements.

You can use Automator to create a special action that acts on files added to a folder. In this example, we'll create an action that looks for new screen shot files to appear on the desktop. It will then move them to another folder. You can look at a special controller to see which folder actions are active on which folders, and disable ones you don't need at the moment.

A recent report claims that studios and Apple are thinking of sending more new movies directly to iTunes at the same time they are in theaters. This isn’t something new. You can already find some “in theaters” movies in iTunes and Apple often features a section of these. But they are usually not major releases.

Copy and Paste has been around for a long time, but if you are new to Mac you may not know all of its uses. You can not only copy and paste text, but also graphics, files and other objects. You can use Cut to easily move objects. Copy and Paste can also be used to move things from one app to another and to create new documents from parts of other ones.

Mac, iPhone and iPad users get inundated with phishing attacks that appear to be official Apple emails but are in fact attempts to steal your Apple ID password. These fake emails play on emotions to get you to click on false links and then enter your password or download some malware. Take a look at some common examples. Thanks to those who contributed these examples!

Most people understand that passwords with names or words in them are weak and shouldn't be used. But what people consider strong passwords are often weak passwords as well. Substituting numbers or special characters for letters, using dates, and combining words does not make a password strong. The only way to get truly strong passwords is to let the computer randomly generate them for you.

If you have a list of phone numbers in a Numbers spreadsheet, you may find that they use a variety of different formats and you'd rather have them all in one format. You can do this one time using search and replace, then cell formatting to get the numbers to look the way you want. Or, you can use a long nested formula to remove all unwanted characters and then the same cell formatting.