MacMost: Archives

Apple released new beta versions of iOS 12 and macOS Mojave today, and the much-anticipated group FaceTime feature was removed. This feature had been in previous betas, but MacRumors is reporting that beta release notes now state that this feature will ship in a future update later this fall. (more...)

When you play a YouTube video on your Mac in a web browser you can use keyboard shortcuts to jump around in the video, control volume, go to full screen and turn on or off captions. Make sure you have the YouTube video selected as the keyboard focus by clicking on it before you try to use shortcuts.

Apple has offered the chance to trade in your old Mac, iPhone or iPad for credit for a while now. But now you can do so and get instant credit for the purchase of the new device at the very same time. (more...)

JavaScript is a programming language commonly used for making web pages interactive. Almost every web page on every major site uses JavaScript as it is one of the three fundamental web technologies along with HTML and CSS. JavaScript should not be confused with Java, which is a different programming language entirely. Using the term Java when you mean JavaScript could lead to misunderstandings that cause problems.

If you want to use Location Services on your Mac in the Maps app, web pages and elsewhere, you need to have Wi-Fi turned on. But if you use a wire connection, you may not want to have Wi-Fi enabled. You can, however, turn on Wi-Fi and tell your Mac not to connect to your home network. This leaves Wi-Fi on, but not connected, which is just fine for using Location Services.

There are two interesting articles dealing with Apple Music and curation. Fast Company has an interview with Tim Cook in which he criticizes other services relying heavily on algorithms to suggest new music to users. At the same time, 9to5Mac reports that Apple has just added a new Friends Mix to Apple Music. (more...)

There are two main methods for replacing a font in Pages. Typically, you would want to update some text and then apply that font change to the rest of the text that uses that same style. You can do that with a simple press of a button. But if you want to quickly replace a font that is used in multiple styles, you can use a special Replace Fonts function. This not only changes the text, but also updates all styles.

With Apple's Print service being retired after September 30, many people are wondering how to order prints, photo books, calendars and other products. Apple opened up Photos to allow third-party printing services last year. Already, several companies offer ordered prints and products directly from Photos. More will probably appear after first-party competition from Apple is gone.

While Apple’s brand is successful in most countries, there is one place where Apple hasn’t fared so well: India. At first Apple had trouble even selling iPhones in India, as the law there requires them to manufacture some percentage of devices inside the country. Even though they are available now, the vast majority opt for cheaper Android phones. (more...)

Many people share Numbers spreadsheets with others by exporting to Excel. This creates a cumbersome process where the spreadsheet is exported and imported multiple times and rules out using some of the best features of Numbers. But you can use the Collaborate feature to share a document with another users regardless of whether they are on Mac or Windows and what software they have installed or whether they have an iCloud account. You can password-protect the document and even collaborate in real time.

For years now, financial analysts have been predicting that Apple would become the first company with a market valuation worth more than $1 trillion. That happened this week when the stock price topped $206/share.
Of course, this is just a number. By itself, it doesn’t mean anything. However, the fact that Apple is the first to cross this milestone does mean something. And that no other company has a market valuation that high also means something.
Tim Cook put the focus back on the reasons for growth, not the number itself: “Financial returns are simply the result of Apple’s innovation, putting our products and customers first, and always staying true to our values.” (more...)

Hashtags are a way of tagging posts and images on social media. They are used heavily on Twitter, Instagram and other services. You can search for posts by hashtag, and use them in your own posts. You don't need to do anything special to create a hashtag, just start using it. Sometimes hashtags are used to express an emotion or something more complex to put an ambiguous post into context, or just for humorous effect.

While Charts are available in Pages, Numbers and Keynote, only Keynote can animate the charts with build-in animations for each element of the chart. You can set the type of animation to fit the style of chart, such as a horizontal wipe for horizontal charts or an iris out for a pie chart. You can group together sets or series and skip the animation of the initial chart background and first set.

A new update to the Gboard keyboard app from Google allows you to type using the dots and dashes of Morse code instead of a traditional keyboard. While this may be nothing more than a novelty for some people, others may actually be able to learn to type faster than using a regular touch screen keyboard. Google also has a nice little mobile website to teach you how to use Morse code.

Apple reported its best third-quarter results yet with a net profit of $11.5 billion. MacRumors has a good run-down of the numbers. As expected, services made up a good chunk of the revenue growth, with iPhone still being the majority from strong iPhone X sales. iPad and Mac still had respectable numbers, especially considering there were no new models.

What continues to surprise is the number of new Mac purchases that are for first-time Mac buyers. 60 percent means a lot of people are still switching to Mac from Windows. Apple Pay also continues to expand, hitting 7/11 in the U.S. soon and being available in Germany later this year too.

A Japanese blog is reporting that the new iPads coming out later this year will feature smaller bodies and no headphone jack. Others have also reported that maybe new iPads will have a “notch” and no Home button like the iPhone X to allow the display to go to the edges. (more...)

In System Preferences there are several keyboard-related accessibility features that can be useful for anyone. You can set modifier keys to remain active so you can use keyboard shortcuts without needing to hold down multiple keys at the same time. You can enable typing sounds and a slight delay to prevent keyboard errors. You can also bring up an on-screen keyboard to use if you are having hardware issues.

When you look in List View in the Finder, you'll see a file size for every file, but no size listed for any folders. You can still view the total size of a folder using one of several methods. You can Get Info on a folder to see the size and number of files. You can also use the File Inspector. Quick Look also displays the folder size. If you want to see the sizes of all folders in List View, you can enable that by changing a setting.

Digital Trends has an interesting look at an Apple patent that shows MacBooks and iPads acting as inductive (wireless) chargers for iPhones and Apple Watches. You just stick one device on top of the other and it charges. But the headline they pull out of this patent is about a minor point where the MacBook appears to maybe have a touch screen. (more...)

Most fonts can either be called Serif or Sans-Serif fonts. The difference is that Serif fonts have extended strokes at the ends and corners whereas Sans-Serif fonts do not. The use of this term predates computers, and the existence of serifs even predates modern printing. Today it is useful to know the difference when choosing a font for a document or graphic element.