Posts By: Gary Rosenzweig

If you like having the Mac Dock always visible, but sometimes find it gets in the way, then learn the keyboard shortcut Command+Option+D. This hides or shows the Dock. It is one of the few keyboard shortcuts that seems to work at all times, not just when the Finder or a specific app is in the foreground.

If you use the Activity Monitor app to check your CPU, memory, energy or disk use, you can hide the main app window and use the Dock icon to keep track of use. You can have the icon show CPU, disk or network usage in a little graph that updates continuously.

Apple has expanded iCloud over the years to include more and more services, like iCloud Photo Library, Apple Music, iCloud Drive and iCloud Keychain. It can be difficult to get your head around everything that makes up iCloud. Here is a handy infographic that ties it all together and explains each service. Click it to view larger, or download it!

Update: Here is a 2022 version I have been working on. Not completely pleased with it, so I’ll leave the one one below. If you want to see the 2022 version, view it here.

One feature of Apple Music is the ability to start a new streaming station with a song, album or artist. Apple Music will then attempt to play songs that are similar. You can further customize the station by indicating if you like the song choices.

There are several ways to attach an image to an email message. You can place the image anywhere you want in the message, or at the end. You can choose a size for the image, sending a smaller version or the full resolution image. You can also markup an image before sending it.

You can use one of four functions in numbers to convert monetary values from one currency to another. You can use the price from the previous day, or a historical value. If you need to know the special currency symbol, you can look that up online.

Remember the Home button? If you have a browser Home page that you like to use, you can get that Home button back by going to View, Customize Toolbar and dragging the Home button back to the toolbar. You can set your Home page in Safari Preferences, General.

Let's see what Apple recommends as gifts this year. I comment on each item.

There are six variations on how to take screen shots using the built-on macOS functionality. You can save screens, areas and windows to files or the clipboard. There is also a Grab app that comes with your Mac that allows you to capture and preview your images before saving. You can also capture timed images. Preview can also be used to capture the screen and QuickTime Player can do video captures.

There are two emergency modes that can help you when you are in trouble. The first allows anyone to make an emergency phone call to the local authorities or to one of your emergency contacts. It also shows critical medical information that can help someone help you. Another mode can be triggered by you to call for help.

Normally, the screen saver starts after a period of inactivity, or when you use a Hot Corner. But you can also create a button in the Dock to start your screen saver with a click. This can be a handy way to quickly lock your Mac too.

A new feature of the Apple Clips app lets you use a virtual reality background to make video, quickly and easily. Hopefully in the future they will let you use your own VR background scene. Still, it is pretty fun and could be useful too.

New Mac users may not yet be using multiple user accounts, one for each individual using the Mac. Using accounts is a good way to keep from stepping on each other's toes when more than one person share a Mac. They are a must if you want to use iCloud or customize your Mac experience in any way. You can also set up a guest user account for one time uses.

A new feature of the iPhone X is the ability to create and send animated character videos made by using the Face ID cameras to capture your facial movements. You can choose between several fun characters and send the resulting video to anyone, not just iPhone X users.

If you go to the Apple Menu and choose Restart or Shut Down, you then have to confirm by clicking a button. Instead, you can do either of those things in one step by holding down the Option key while selecting either item in the Apple Menu.

A little-known use for the Mac Preview app is to import photos from an iPhone, camera or SD card. This functionality is similar to using Image Capture, but coupled with Preview's ability to view and edit the photos as well. It doesn't work perfectly with iCloud Photo Library, since it is hard to know which photos are actually on your iPhone at any given time.

I bought a cheap wireless charger to go with my iPhone X. I was skeptical of wireless charging and whether it would be worth it. But it turns out I really like it.

Using the iPhone X means learning a set of new gestures to replace the Home button. You need to learn how to do a quick and short swipe up at the bottom of the screen to replace the basic Home button press. Other functions, like screenshots, Siri, accessibility and restarting your phone will use the side button and a combination of other techniques.

A new feature of the iPhone X and iPhone 8 Plus is Portrait Lighting. This is an extension of Portrait Mode from the iPhone 7 Plus, but now there are multiple modes including contour and stage lighting. You can use these to make a subject contrast more with the background or almost eliminate the background entirely.

So I got my iPhone X today, and decided to film opening the box for those interested. It took about 30 minutes to set up, most of which was the update to iOS 11.1.I'm very embarrassed by how bad this video looks. I don't do videos like this very often, and I swear the scene looked great in the iPhone 6 Plus screen that I was using to do the recording. But the contrast is just horrible, even after adjusting in Final Cut. Oh well. At least we can use this as a springboard for questions you may have about the iPhone X.