Posts By: Gary Rosenzweig

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.

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.

A typical problem new Mac users have is a Downloads folder that quickly fills with lots of files taking up a large amount of hard drive space. The Downloads folder is the default location for web downloads and it can be easy to forget to maintain it. It is accessible like any other Finder folder and you can easily sort it and delete or move items from it to keep it clean.

You can switch between the standard keyboard and the Emoji keyboard easily fi you know which key to tap. The key changes its symbol and position depending on which keyboard you are currently using, which can be confusing. You can cycle through your existing keyboards, or just right to a specific keyboard by tapping and holding that key in some cases.

You can open standard MIDI files in GarageBand. You can then view the notes in each track, change them, and change the instrument being used to play that track. You can combine MIDI tracks with other Apple Loops to create interesting remixes of music.

I played around with a JXA (JavaScript for Automation instead of AppleScript) script that searches for duplicate photos in your Photos library and marks them with a keyword. It turned out to be pretty simple. But it could be dangerous if you plan to use it to permanently deleted photos.Here is the script text: var Photos = Application("Photos"); Photos.includeStandardAdditions = true; var currentSelection = Photos.selection(); var photoDataList = []; for (var item of currentSelection) { var photoInfo = String(item.date())+" "+String(item.size())+" "+String(item.name()); var isDup = false; for(var i=0;i<photoDataList.length;i++) { if (photoDataList[i] == photoInfo) { isDup = true; break; } } if (isDup) { var keys = item.keywords(); if (keys == null) keys = []; item.keywords = keys.concat(["duplicate"]); } else { photoDataList.push(photoInfo); } }

If you have several printers on your network, it can sometimes be difficult to know which one is which. But you can name your printers to make it easier. Names will carry over to other users on your Mac, but not to other Macs or devices on your network.

The iPad Dock is a persistent Home screen feature that allows you to easily switch to your most-used apps. You can customize the left side of the Dock, while the right side shows your most recently used apps. You can also bring the Dock up inside of other apps for quick switching or multitasking.

If you are new to Mac, you may not yet be using the Notes app. This is a handy built-in app where you can store small pieces of text and create lists. When you use iCloud, your Notes sync across all of your devices, so you can create them and edit them anywhere. You can also share notes with other iCloud users.

Some people may prefer digital iTunes gifts instead of physical CDs and DVDs. You can send a specific album, movie, app or book as a gift to another Apple user from within iTunes. You can include a special message and even schedule the gift.