MacMost: Archives

Almost all new cars today come with wireless key fobs instead of old-fashioned keys. An Apple patent, noticed by Apple Insider, details possible plans for replacing these devices with extra functionality of the iPhone. (more...)

When you sign up or log in to a web site, or fill out a form, you will often be asked to complete a task such as typing some random characters from an image or selecting images from a group. This is called a CAPTCHA. These are used to protect web sites from automatic systems that try to log into accounts or create new ones.

When you place an image in a Pages document, the image will either move with the text around it, or it will stay put on the page at the exact location where you placed it. Which rule it follows depends on one setting. If you set an image to follow the text, you need to be careful about the exact placement of the image to make sure it is anchored with the paragraph you want.

A minor note in a prediction by TrendForce mentions that new iPhones coming later this year will allow the use of the Apple Pencil. Support for the Apple Pencil needs to be built into hardware of a device, and currently only recent iPad Pros and the new iPad from earlier this year support it. (more...)

Many people still use cloning as a method of backing up a Mac. However, this method is not nearly as useful or robust as a standard Time Machine backup. Files you may think are safely backed up to a clone can actually be completely missing. If you use a clone as a secondary backup, better solutions exist such as online backups, cloud storage, or simply a second Time Machine backup.

If you are new to Mac, learn how some of the most common keyboard shortcuts differ from what you may have learned to use on Windows. Realizing that the primary keyboard modifier on the Mac is Command, not Control, is the first step. But there are other differences and some shortcuts that are completely different.

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.