Posts By: Gary Rosenzweig

What is VPN and why do people use it? VPN stands for Virtual Private Network and it allows you to establish a secure connection from your device, though Wi-Fi and your ISP, to the VPN service, and then out to the Internet. Using a VPN you can mask what you are doing from your ISP, which is particularly useful if you don't trust your ISP, such as when using a connection in a public place.

You can use three special whole-hand gestures on your iPad to switch between apps. There is a gesture for switching to the App Switcher, one for going back to the Home screen, and one for moving left and right between apps. You can also disable these gestures if you are triggering them inadvertently.

A new feature in Pages is the ability to export into Rich Text Format. This kind of file can be opened and edited by almost any text editor or word processor. You can use RTF to move a document from Pages to TextEdit, or to send to someone when you are not sure what kind of word processor they are using.

It is important to understand that just because you have a great Wi-Fi signal, it doesn't mean that your Internet speed will be fast. Wi-Fi signal only tells you about the connection between your device and the local Wi-Fi-router. But that router's connection to the Internet is what really determines your speed.

A new feature of Keynote allows you to easily embed your finished presentation as a piece of interactive media in blog posts. This works in the popular platforms WordPress.com and Medium.com, as well as possibly others.

In macOS you have the option to have the Dock always be present, or to have it automatically hide itself until the cursor is at the bottom of the screen. Both options have their advantages and disadvantages.

A new feature in Keynote puts all of the objects on a slide in a list so you can easily access and arrange them. You can also group and name objects easily, and move them between slides.

When you open a Pages, Numbers or Keynote document that is missing fonts, you can use a handy new feature to globally replace that font throughout the document. You can also use this to quickly change any font in your document.

So I spent some time at Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo today. It is supposed to be the busiest intersection in the world. Each time the walk signs turn green, a ton of people cross from all directions and fill the street,. I had to take some video of that.Of course I was just there with my iPhone 7 plus and nothing like a tripod. I just held the phone up and tried to be as steady as I could. But the result was still shaky. So here is a test I did in iMovie on my Mac afterwards. First, I sped up the video 4X since it takes a full minute to see the crossing. And the speed makes it look more exciting. Then, I copied and pasted it so it repeated. The first time is normal, but the second time I applied iMovie's image stabilization at 100%. It doesn't get rid of the movement completely, but it does smooth it out. It makes it easier to watch, I think.

A new feature in Numbers is the ability to add leader lines to pie charts. This makes the charts look more professional and easier to follow. This also works with pie charts in Keynote and Pages.

You may be surprised to learn how most passwords are hacked. It isn't by breaking into the account that is threatened, but by stealing the password from another site entirely. This happens because many people use the same password for different sites. You can easily protect yourself against this.

A new feature in Keynote allows you to have your presenter notes in white text on a black background. This makes it easier to present in front of a dark room using a MacBook connected to a large screen.

You can now use LaTeX and MathML to add math equations to your Pages documents. This creates a separate element that exists inside of the flow of text. You can copy and paste equations from other math apps, or type the code to create the equations on your own. This also works in Numbers and Keynote.

Apple has a new iOS app called Clips. It is kind of like a social media video sharing app, but without the social network. It is just a "creator" app and you choose where to post it.Could this be the start of another Apple push into social media? Or is it just iMovie lite? Here's a link to the app: <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/clips/id1212699939?mt=8" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Clips</a> .

Night Shift is a new Sierra feature for recent Macs that shifts the colors on your screen to include less blue light. This can be useful for people using their Macs in the evening as more blue light may make it harder for some to get to sleep. Learn how to turn this feature on and off, and adjust it on your Mac.

A new feature in Numbers allows you to use live stock prices and other information in your spreadsheets. You can get the current price, volume, change and other data. You can also grab historical data.

Did you know that you can look at individual web pages in Activity Monitor? Only discovered this while exploring. This could be useful for web developers looking to see how much CPU or memory their sites are using. Or, for everyone else who suspects that some web pages use a lot of their Mac's resources.

Take a look at a new feature in Pages that lets you link to other parts of the document. These internal bookmarks can be individually defined, or easily added from titles and headings. When you export as a PDF, the links will work for the reader.