• December 30, 2021

    Keep the Menu Bar Showing in Full Screen in macOS 12 Monterey

    Do you like using full-screen mode on your new M1-based MacBook Pro but hate having the menu bar disappear unless you move the pointer to the top of the screen? Happily, in macOS 12 Monterey, Apple has at long last added a setting to keep the menu bar visible at all times. Open System Preferences > Dock & Menu Bar and uncheck “Automatically hide and show the menu bar in full screen.” The... Read more
  • December 28, 2021

    Avoid Inclement Weather by Enabling Notifications in iOS 15’s Weather App

    Thanks to Apple’s 2020 acquisition of weather company Dark Sky, the iPhone’s Weather app has learned some new tricks in iOS 15. (It still isn’t available on the iPad, oddly.) Most obvious is its addition of weather maps that can show precipitation, temperature, and air quality. More subtle are the notifications that can aler... Read more
  • December 23, 2021

    Shrink Apps to Prevent the MacBook Pro Notch from Obscuring App Controls

    The new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models feature a camera housing built into the screen, resulting in a notch like that on the iPhone. Most developers are updating their apps to ensure that no controls or menu bar items appear blocked or hidden by the notch, but if you use an older app that doesn’t play nicely with the notch, there’s a fix. Quit the app if it’s running, select it in the F... Read more
  • December 21, 2021

    FaceTime Gains Cool New Features in Apple’s Latest Operating Systems

    It’s no exaggeration to say that videoconferencing went mainstream during the pandemic. However, Apple’s FaceTime didn’t stack up well against Zoom and others due to its emulation of the telephone call experience, questionable interface decisions, and lack of cross-platform compatibility. However, with iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS 12 Monterey, Apple has nearly brought FaceTime into feature pari... Read more
  • December 16, 2021

    Should You Use Apple’s New Password Manager in iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS 12 Monterey?

    We continually recommend that every Apple user rely on a password manager like 1Password for creating, managing, and entering passwords securely. What we haven’t encouraged as heavily is relying on Apple’s built-in password management features. Although they’re free, they’ve been too basic and hard to use over the years, relyin... Read more
  • December 14, 2021

    Apple’s Evolution of Do Not Disturb Helps You Focus

    Between texts, alarms, reminders, calls, and myriad other notifications on our iPhones, iPads, and Macs, it’s a miracle we get anything done at all. To free us from this onslaught, Apple previously provided Do Not Disturb, which let you set times during which you could be free from interruption. In iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS 12 Monterey, Apple has gone even further. Do Not Disturb is now c... Read more
  • December 9, 2021

    Pay Attention to the iPhone’s Emergency SOS Auto Call Feature

    Did you know that pressing and holding the side button and one of the volume buttons on an iPhone 8 or later brings up a screen that lets you power your iPhone off, show your medical ID, and invoke Emergency SOS? (On earlier iPhones, press the side or top button five times.) Slide Emergency SOS, and your iPhone will immediately call emergency services, which could be lifesaving in a real emerge... Read more
  • December 7, 2021

    Print Mailing Labels for Your Holiday Cards with Apple’s Contacts App

    If mailing your holiday cards (which you designed in Photos with a plug-in like Motif or Mimeo Photos, right?) is made harder by having to write addresses on envelopes, ... Read more