If the iOS 10.2 beta is any indication, Apple thinks every iPhone pic we take should be a Live Photo. Live Photo is on by default and reactivates itself every time you launch the Camera app, but there is a way to force it to stay off. Read on to learn how.
Quick Tip
How to Re-enable the Startup Chime on Late 2016 MacBook Pro Models
The new 15-inch and 13-inch Touch Bar Retina MacBook Pro, along with their 13-inch function key sibling, do away with the Mac startup chime. Turns out the chime isn’t gone, but is only disabled—and it’s easy to re-enable with a quick trip to the Terminal. Read on to learn how.
Customizing Apple Watch Faces on Your iPhone
Today’s Quick Tip is all about using the Apple Watch app on the iPhone to customize your faces. If you don’t wanna fiddle with colors and complications on your itty bitty Watch, there’s now an easier, faster way to do so!
How to Add a Physical Escape Key to the New MacBook Pro
The Escape key has been on our keyboards practically since the beginning of time—even the Apple II had one. That’s changing with tomorrow’s MacBook Pro refresh and its Magic Toolbar. The physical Escape key is going virtual, but Apple is including a way to let other keys handle its task.
iOS 10.1: Turning Off Duplicate Portrait Mode Images
This Quick Tip is about the spankin’-new Portrait Mode available on the iPhone 7 Plus, which’ll let you take shots with a special depth effect applied. However, if you don’t want your iPhone to keep an additional version of each of your Portrait Mode images, come read this article and find out how to turn that off!
macOS Sierra: How to Use Photos Memories
Within macOS Sierra’s Photos program, there’s a new “Memories” feature that’ll automatically group pictures together to remind you of important events in your life. In this Quick Tip, we’ll go over a few great tricks on how to use it!
![iCloud Family Sharing Users Can Remotely Wipe Each Other’s Devices [Updated]](https://www.macobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/iphone-erased.webp)
iCloud Family Sharing Users Can Remotely Wipe Each Other's Devices [Updated]
iCloud Family Sharing is great for letting your family share apps, videos, music, photos, and more without sharing an Apple ID. If you’re using Find My iPhone along with iCloud Family Sharing, however, there’s a chance someone could accidentally—or intentionally—remotely erase your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
macOS Sierra: Resetting Your System Sound Effects Output
Every macOS/OS X update has its own quirks, and those quirks can be amplified by whatever peculiarities existed on the Mac being upgraded. For instance, when I upgraded to Sierra, that setting got changed so that it was independent from my System Output. Fortunately, putting it back is easy.
How to Recalibrate Apple Watch Fitness Tracking
Let’s say you followed my advice and calibrated your Apple Watch for better step count and distance accuracy, but something went wonky now it’s wrong again. That’s an easy fix, and a great excuse to get outside to walk some more. Read on to learn how to reset your Apple Watch fitness tracking calibration.
iOS: How to Convince Ducking Autocorrect You Don't Mean Duck
Our iPhones are great at making our lives easier, but sometimes autocorrect just gets it wrong. So ducking wrong, in fact, that it’s really ducking annoying. Turns out there’s a workaround that lets you trick your iPhone or iPad into leaving the word you really typed instead of changing it to “duck.”
macOS Sierra: Rearrange Your Menu Bar
If you’ve ever been frustrated by not being able to customize the Mac’s menu bar, then this Quick Tip‘s for you. Under macOS Sierra, that funny little omnipresent bar just got a lot more adjustable, and this article will tell you how!
Get Detailed CPU Info From Mac's Command Line
It’s easy to get hardware information about your Mac from “About This Mac.” But the command line data can provide some extra tidbits that the GUI leaves out. John shows you how to reveal detail of your CPU from the Terminal app.
iOS 10: Turning Off "Raise to Wake"
This Quick Tip is about the new “Raise to Wake” feature in iOS 10. It’s cool, it’s handy, but if you get notifications that are private or potentially offensive, it’s less than ideal. Wanna turn it off? We’ll tell you how.
macOS Sierra: Fast Sound Settings from the Menu Bar
Apple gets that we’re always looking for ways to make the routine things we do on our Macs easier and some of the subtle changes in macOS Sierra really show that off. The Sound menu bar item is a perfect example because now switching audio input and output sources is even simpler.
Safari 10: Hide Flash from Every Website Except Some
Safari 10 allows you to have Flash installed, but to control which sites know it (or access it). For many users, this would be the best compromise between having flash and not installing it all. Bryan Chaffin shows you how to do it.
Use 3D Touch in LINE to Read Messages without a Read Receipt
The LINE Corporation has done something very useful with 3D Touch, and I thought I’d tell you about it. When you’re looking at your Chats view, you can view recent chats, as shown below, without sending a read receipt. Bryan Chaffin shows you how.
How to Make macOS Sierra Empty Your Mac's Trash for You
macOS Sierra is loaded with cool new features, but sometimes it’s the little things that make your life easier, like not needing to remember to empty your Mac’s trash. You can set the Trash to auto-delete after 30 days, and it’s easy to do. Read on to learn how.
iOS 10: Managing Siri's Third Party App Voice Control
iOS 10 opens Siri to third party apps so you can say things like, “Hey Siri, get me an Uber.” If you don’t want Siri calling rides for you—or Siri says it can’t—it’s time for a trip to your iPhone’s Settings to manage which apps Siri can control. Read on to learn how.
iOS 10: Save a File as PDF to iBooks
In iOS 10, you can now Print to PDF, just as we’ve been doing with OS X/macOS. But there’s also another nice trick in the Sharing option. “Save PDF to iBooks.” It’s simple and fast. John likes this feature a lot.
watchOS 3: Mickey and Minnie Mouse Can Now Speak the Time
One of the coolest Apple Watch faces has been Mickey Mouse, tapping his foot in time with the seconds. Now, watchOS 3 adds Minnie to the fun. Plus they can each speak the time out loud with a tap. John shows you how.
iOS 10: How to Disable (Some) Haptic Feedback on iPhone 7
iPhone 7 includes more haptic feedback than previous iPhones, including vibrations for buttons and wheels. You can turn some of these vibrations off. Bryan Chaffin shows you how.
Use a Password Manager to Store Your Driver's License and Passport
Storing your driver’s license or passport information on your computer in a text file or as a photograph may be convenient, but it also makes it easier for anyone with access to your hard drive—including hackers—to steal your identity. Modern password managers, like 1Password and LastPass, solve that problem by encrypting your sensitive data and keeping it away from prying eyes.
Save Bandwidth with iMessage Images Using Low Quality Mode
iOS 10 has something called Low Quality Mode for images you send out in iMessage. When active, Low Quality Mode reduces any images you are sending out to approximately 100K. This can save you a lot of cellular data usage, especially if you’re sending out photographs you take on your iPhone.
iOS 10: How to Use Your iPhone as a Magnifying Lens
If you really stretch the whole “the best camera is the one you have with you” thing, you can say the same about magnifying lenses, too. Since your iPhone is always with you—hence, the best camera line—why not use it as a magnifying lens, too? That’s exactly what you can do in iOS 10.