Posts By: Gary Rosenzweig

So I had some fun last night and made this little video, just for YouTube. But I thought I'd share it here too, so we can discuss. Having a teenager at home, and a wife pretty active with social media, I see a lot of communication done with emoji. I find it fascinating how these little pictures are being used to abbreviate words, feelings, or convey an idea with some whimsy. I made this video partially because I think people will find it fun, but also because some parents may want to know what their kids mean when they send a text. I thought very carefully how to handle the more risqué ones. I tried to present the most logical and least-shocking definitions I could think of, without making them difficult to understand. I hope no one takes offense.

Instead if typing a period and then a space at the end of the sentence, you can tap the spacebar twice to add the period automatically. Make sure you have this feature turned on in System Preferences, Keyboard, Text, “Add period with double-space.” This is especially useful for consistency if you are used to doing this on iOS.

The handoff feature of macOS and iOS allows you to use a Universal Clipboard to copy text, images, files or just about anything between your devices. You can use this to copy and paste text and images between documents while working with two or more devices. You can also transfer entire files this way, which is actually easier than using AirDrop in many situations.

New Mac users sometimes don't understand why the top row of keys on the keyboard don't work as expected. These keys are both the function keys and the special features keys, also knows as f-keys and media control keys. You toggle how these keys behave with the fn key. But a setting in System Preferences determines which mode is the default one and which requires the fn key.

With the new Voice Control feature in macOS Catalina you can control almost anything on your Mac with your voice. You can access menu commands, dictate text, click buttons and even click a specific point on the screen using grids. This functionality is critical for some, but for others it can also offer a nice hands-free alternative to using your Mac.

I can't believe this worked so easily. I bought some cheap NFC tag stickers from Amazon and was easily able to add Personal Automations in the Shortcuts app on my iPhone that are triggered by them. As an example, I now have a tag that I can wave my iPhone in front of and a song will play. I'm sure I can come up with more useful things for it to do too. Works better than other Personal Automations because you can set it to run without confirming. I will be playing with it more and doing a regular tutorial at some point. Any good ideas for useful things that can be done with this technique?

If you only use the Dock to launch apps, you missing out on one of the Mac's most powerful features. By adding folders to the right side of the Dock, you can have quick access to downloads, applications, files and more. You can create Smart Folders to view recent documents or documents from a single app. You can create folders full of aliases to get quick access to groups of applications or files.

Even if you don't have the bucks to buy someone a new MacBook Pro or iPhone, there are still plenty of greate gifts for Apple fans that are much cheaper. You may want to consider an Apple Battery Case, an Apple Pencil or a Series 3 Apple Watch, all which run under $200. You can also get gifts that aren't directly related to Apple but will run Apple services, such as an Amazon Echo to play Apple Music or a Roku TV box that plays Apple TV+. Other ideas include game controllers for Apple Arcade and two different types of Apple gift cards.

If you find yourself always changing the font and other styles in Pages after starting a new document, you may want to set up your own custom template to use as the default for new documents. This will save you time as every new document will begin with things set just as you like them. You can also set things like paragraph spacing and even headers and footers. While there is a new default font setting in Pages, creating your own blank template gives you far more control.

If you want to convert a group of JPG image files to a single PDF, you can use a variety of methods. Most people will tell you to use Preview. But there are other ways that are either simpler or more versatile. You can use a Quick Action to do it without even opening up an app. You can also use Pages and Keynote to create richer PDFs with border, text and other features. The best way may be to use Photos which offers a variety of printing options that can be used to create PDFs.

So I'm thinking about doing a video soon about alternate methods of organizing your photos in the Photos app. So many people are stuck just using plain albums. But you can use titles, descriptions and keywords and then build Smart Albums instead. Or use no albums at all and just keywords and searches. Let me show you these methods and I'd love your feedback and other suggestions.

Version 13.2 of audioOS for the HomePod included two new features that could be useful if your HomePod is in the bedroom. You can now ask Siri to play a collection of endlessly looping ambient sounds, such as Forest, Stream, Fireplace, Night, Ocean, Rain and White Noise. This effectively makes your HomePod a white noise machine, one with amazing speakers. You can also ask Siri to set a sleep timer for these sounds, or any music you are playing.

Conditional highlighting in Numbers is simply a way to change the style of a cell based on the contents of that same cell. However, by using a trick you can have conditional highlighting affect other cells or an entire row.

Apple released new battery cases for the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max this week. Similar to previous battery cases, these fit around the iPhone and connect through the Lightning port to add a second battery to the iPhone, tightly integrated with iOS so that the user can see the battery levels for both. Connecting the unit then charges both batteries.

There is a place on your Mac and on your iOS device where you can view almost all of your subscriptions, including Apple TV+, Apple News+, Apple Music and subscriptions from any third-party apps you may have. You'll find your iCloud storage subscription in a different location. You can view, modify or cancel any of these subscriptions.

If you have moved your Mac’s Spotlight menu window away from the center of the screen and want to get it back to its original position, you can do so by clicking and holding the Spotlight button in the menu bar. Hold it for about a second and it will move into place.

If you prefer to type instead of using the mouse and cursor you can manage your files and folders with the Terminal. You can use commands to list, open, rename, move and delete files. You can do nearly everything that you can do in the Finder, and some commands are even more powerful.

Been a while since I showed what equipment I'm using. Here are some details: <ul> <li>Neewer Ring Light Kit:18"/48cm Outer 55W 5500K Dimmable LED Ring Light</li> <li>Canon VIXIA HF R800</li> <li>Elgato Cam Link 4K</li> <li>AT2020 USB Cardioid Condenser Microphone</li></ul>

You can't copy and paste or print Reminders in macOS Catalina. However, with the help of a script you can get a Reminders list as text to be pasted into any app, printed, or sent as email. Learn how to create a Mac script in JavaScript (JXA) using Script Editor or Automator to get this important function back and have it available as an easy-access menu command.

With iOS 13 it is easy to use your iPhone as a scanner and scan single or multi-page documents. You can scan directly to iCloud Drive and then your documentd would be on your Mac without any additional steps. You can even scan while away from your home or office and they documents will end up in the same place with no extra effort. Your iPhone will flatten the pages and make adjustments automatically.