MacMost: Video Podcast

Most off-the-shelf USB flash drives are formatted for Windows computers. You can easily reformat a drive to use the standard Mac OS Extended format with the Disk Utility app. Keeping the drive in MS-DOS format may be a better option, however, if you plan to use it on both Mac and Windows computers.

If you have a problem with some you purchased from iTunes or an Apple App Store, you can easily report this problem and request a refund. This is the easiest way to get your money back if you have problems with a video rental, for instance.

iOS has an undo function that works in a wide variety of apps and situations. But it doesn't have an on-screen button. Instead, shake your iPhone or iPad when you want to undo your last action.

You can set your playlists to a manual order or to follow a specific order like alphabetical. You can also use some tricks to shuffle the order of your playlists and get that random order to become permanent, rather than using the shuffle function that plays songs in a different order each time.

Take a look at the Touch Bar on the new Macbook Pro. This thin touchscreen that replaces the function keys on the keyboard allows you to easily access functions for macOS and apps. It changes depending on which app you are using and what you are doing.

If you have your iPhone linked to your car using Bluetooth, then it will automatically remember where you parked. You can access your parking location in the Maps app and get directions to walk back to your car. You can also add notes and an image to help.

Building a photo slideshow in Keynote is very quick and easy. You can simply drag and drop them into Keynote, add a transition and some music and then export as video. It is also easy to add text to any slide as captions.

Both macOS and iOS allow you to search for system settings. You can use the Search field at the top of System Preferences, or the Search field in the Settings app to quickly find specific items. But the results aren't perfect.

You can count the number of times a text string appears in a Numbers spreadsheet column using the COUNTIF function. The function can be hard-coded to look for text, or it can use the value of another cell.

You can easily snap the sides and corners of windows to the edges of the screen. This helps if you like to keep multiple windows arranged neatly on your desktop.

You can set your iPhone's flashlight brightness to low, medium or bright using 3D touch on a later model iPhone. You can also access the flashlight without unlocking your iPhone by using the button in the Magnifier function.

The new ports on the MacBook Pros are billed as Thunderbolt 3, but it is better to think of them as USB-C. They can handle USB, Thunderbolt, video and power. They are a single port to handle just about any peripheral need. If you have old devices and cables, then converters are cheap and easy to find.

You can stream your favorite radio stations from around the world in iTunes. You can use the list of stations in iTunes, or grab the URL from your station's website and create a stream. You can then save streams to a playlist to access them easily.

In addition to IDs and passwords, you can autofill your name and email address into forms with Safari. This is handy for filling out simple forms where you are not logging into a site. You can change which information is available in the Contacts app.

In addition to getting transit directions in Apple Maps on your Mac and iOS devices, you can also simply view transit routes. Turning on the Transit mode will show you major routes like light rail and subways. You can also zoom in to see bus stops and then view an entire bus route.

You can use 3D touch on your iPhone 6s, 6s plus, 7 or 7 plus to quickly and easily start a timer or stopwatch. This comes in handy while cooking, exercising, or some other activity where you want to use clock functions quickly.

While Launchpad isn't the first choice for launching apps for many Mac users, it is useful for those that want to organize and arrange their apps into groups of app folders. A well-arranged set of Launchpad screens can make working with apps easier.

If you don't use the Caps Lock key, you can disable it to prevent accidental use. You can also re-assign it as an optional Command, Control, Option or Esc key.

If you use Mission Control, you can assign an app to a specific desktop so when you launch it it automatically appears on that desktop instead of the current desktop. You can also assign an app to appear on all desktops, which is handy for note-taking and other tasks.

You can use the Find My iPhone function to find a lost iPhone, iPad or even a MacBook by making it play a sound. This is handy when you misplace your device in your own home or workplace.