• April 30, 2024

    Loose Lips Sink Chips: Beware What You Say to AI Chatbots

    Generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Bing/CoPilot, and Google’s Gemini are the vanguard of a significant advance in computing. Among much else, they can be compelling tools for finding just the right word, drafting simple legal documents, starting awkward emails, and coding in unfamiliar languages. Much has been written about how AI chatbots “hallucinate,” making up plausible detail... Read more
  • April 25, 2024

    Take Advantage of the Reference Library in Your Mac

    You may be used to Mac apps using red underlines to mark misspelled words, but did you know that macOS has also long included a fully featured Dictionary app? It provides quick access to definitions and synonyms in the New Oxford American Dictionary and the Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus, along with definitions of Apple-specific words like AirDrop and Apple ProRes RAW. But that’s far from a... Read more
  • April 23, 2024

    SPF, DKIM, and DMARC: What They Are and Why You Need Them

    The ease of sending and receiving email makes it an attractive way to run scams like phishing attacks. One telltale mark of a phishing attack is the sender’s address not matching their purported domain; attacks that appear to come from legitimate email addresses are much more likely to fool the victim. You can protect your organization’s email accounts from being compromised and used in phis... Read more
  • April 18, 2024

    Six Reasons Why You Should Restart Your Mac Periodically

    Long ago, before macOS was as stable as it is today, Mac users restarted their Macs regularly. Back then, Macs couldn’t sleep, either, so it was common for users to shut down at the end of the day and start up the next morning, effectively restarting daily. With modern Macs using the barest trickle of power in sleep and both apps and macOS almost never crashing, many Mac users have gone to t... Read more
  • April 16, 2024

    How to Sync Your Text Messages across All Your Apple Devices

    Although many of us think of Messages as an iPhone app, Apple’s platform integration lets you read and reply to conversations in Messages on other Apple devices, including the Mac and iPad. All your devices must have the correct settings to make this work reliably. We regularly hear from users who don’t see all their messages on all their devices. If that’s you, check these settings:
  • April 11, 2024

    Looking for Apple Manuals? Check the New Documentation Site

    Apple publishes a multitude of manuals and tons of technical documentation for its products on its support site, but until recently, it could be challenging to find something specific because the search engine on Apple’s site is poor. For a better path into Apple’s online support materials, check out the company’s new Read more
  • April 9, 2024

    Want an Event List in Apple’s Calendar App? Try This Trick

    Along with day, week, month, and year views, most calendar apps offer the option of a simple chronological list of events, which can be a handy way to see what’s coming up. Apple’s Calendar app on the Mac is unfortunately not among those apps. However, there is a trick you can use to get it to show all your upcoming events in a scrolling list. Click in the Search field in the upper-right corner... Read more
  • April 4, 2024

    Tips for Working with Mac Display Resolutions

    You can change the resolution of your Mac’s screen—how many pixels appear—to make text and graphics larger and easier to see or smaller to fit more content onscreen. In System Settings > Displays, Apple shows thumbnails for five likely possibilities. Hover the pointer over a thumbnail to see its numeric resolution underneath. If you prefer the traditional list of numeric resolutions, Option-... Read more
  • April 2, 2024

    Apple Podcasts Adds Transcripts

    In iOS 17.4, iPadOS 17.4, and macOS 14.4 Sonoma, Apple enhanced its Podcasts app to include transcripts of all podcasts in the Apple Podcasts catalog as long as they’re in English, French, German, or Spanish. (It doesn’t translate from one language to another.) Mu... Read more